SMWK
by Umbra the Hedgehog
Summary: Co-written with Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. Everyone knows about Team RWBY and their close friends, the ones who have risked their lives to help people and take down threats far bigger than anything they should be facing… but what about those who lurk in the background?
1. Chapter 1

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing in! Alrighty then, it's been a while since my last update. I want to apologize to anyone who still follows me for the obscenely long period of silence. I've managed to nab some vacation time at work, and I'm planning to use it to make as many updates as I can. Starting off, we've got a project right here that's been cooking for a couple years, as well as my first officially credited collab. Now that we've gotten the formalities out of the way, I present you with a project based on Rooster Teeth's shockingly amazing and popular animated series, RWBY! We hope you'll enjoy it!

Description: Everyone knows about Team RWBY and their close friends, the ones who have risked their lives to help people and take down threats far bigger than anything they should be facing… but what about those who lurk in the background?

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

Airships. Gadgets. Cutting-edge weapons. Dust.

These things are commonplace in the world of Remnant. A world where the threat of an attack from outside forces is not only very real, but a constant concern. So much so, in fact, that the forces that prevent massive attacks or the spread of panic, sworn to protect their world and people, are shaped and prepared not only at armies, but also at schools.

Some people start getting prepared for this huge responsibility late in life, while some others choose to do so at a much younger age. There are those who train at one of many combat schools, and there are those who find their own ways. In either case, anyone who chooses this job is to become part of a team, which they may or may not stay on after completing their training.

This is the story of one such team.

* * *

Metal clashing. Grunting. Panting.

Somewhere along a vast desert in the kingdom of Vacuo, a battle was unfolding.

On one side, there was a man, clearly at a capable age, waiting for his opponents to come, blade in hand. He was wearing a green jacket on top of a purple shirt, along with green pants, a pair of black-and-purple gloves, and some single-lens goggles atop his head. He had brown hair, hazel eyes, and a tanned skin tone.

"Come on, boys! Pick up the pace!"

On the other, a much younger man and an equally young Faunus, doing their best to rise from the sand that acted as a bed for them as they tried to catch a second wind.

"Take it easy, Pops! We're not war veterans here!" The Faunus struggled to catch his breath.

He had a high-collared, sleeveless black shirt with reddish-brown trim, a matching pair of fingerless gloves with small protrusions where the knuckles were imprinted, a black choker, some dog tags, black pants with one long leg and one short leg, and black sneakers. He shared the older man's brown hair and tanned skin, but he also had some locks of light blond hair on the sides of his head, a few markings on his face which resembled whiskers, a scar on the left side of his mouth, and he had one yellow eye on view, while his other eye was covered by his bangs.

The man laughed a little.

"You two wanted to go to Beacon so badly?" His tone was rather playful. "Well, show me what you're going to show them. Impress me!"

The younger man was also finding it hard to breathe. "Well, it's not exactly a fair fight, y'know?"

He was clad in a long-sleeved midnight green shirt, black-and-green forearm protectors with green fingers, blue pants with black knees, black boots, and a black belt with multiple pouches, along with a pair of dual-lens copper goggles which hung around his neck. He also had brown hair, tanned skin and yellow eyes, but his hair was much shorter and messier.

The Faunus boy nodded. "Yeah, it's just the two of us against you. We'd have a better chance of biting through a rock!"

"Agreed." The man just nodded a couple of times before looking at them with a big smile. "But can you blame a fragile old man for wanting to spend some quality time with his sons before they leave the nest?" He playfully imitated an elderly person as he asked his question.

That got the younger human to laugh along with him.

"You're not _that_ old, Dad. Come on."

The Faunus sighed. "Really, Pops. You only got like three gray hairs."

"Besides, with how the fight's going, I can just see you running circles around us even after you hit seventy-five."

The other boy nodded in agreement before turning to his partner.

"Our chances at victory against big, bad Captain Midnight are slim, bro." His voice didn't even disguise how snarky he was being. "What do you suggest?"

The young human brought a hand to his mouth. "Well, maybe we could—"

"You _do_ realize I'm still within earshot, right, boys?" The older man interrupted him.

The two looked at him for a moment before turning to each other, accordingly feeling silly for forgetting that.

"Uh…" It only took a few seconds' thought for him to come up with a response. "…I've got nothing."

The Faunus replied shortly with one of his favorite phrases.

"Woof."

With him, that could translate to a number of different things, but they usually went hand-in-hand with discomfort.

Captain Midnight sighed before running over to them at top speed and lifting the younger man into the air, followed by throwing him in the Faunus's direction.

"If you want my advice so badly, here's one piece for free: work together." He spoke to them in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice as the two recovered from his attack. "Out in the battlefield, there's no such thing as 'fair'. You have superior numbers. Use them."

After rolling his eyes left and right, the Faunus whispered to his human partner.

"See the opening?"

He checked his surroundings for a second. "I… I think so."

"Follow my lead. Try taking the defensive instead of the offensive. Keep him busy, and I'll use the tall rock to bounce myself back and attack from the rear."

"Alright, got it."

With that said, the two readied their weapons once again.

"Well, Pops, you sure had us between a Grimm and a hard place, but now, we turn the tables! Let's go!"

The young human leapt forward, heading towards his father. Their weapons clashed once more, the older man overpowering him without much difficulty.

"That's more like it, Kale! Show me your spirit!" He smiled at his son. "Too bad you didn't hear me, though. I literally just told you to work—"

It was at that very moment that he realized he was missing something.

"…Where's your brother?"

Kale started chuckling in response. "Made you look."

The Faunus, sprinting in all fours, rapidly approached his bewildered father.

"Made you woof!"

Seeing his son approaching, he reached into his holster and pulled out a gun, which he quickly turned into another blade to halt his son's attack.

"Nice job, Russett. That was a good strategy."

Kale nodded. "Yeah, we actually got close this time."

His brother, on the other hand, cringed at the mention of his name.

"Geez… would it kill you to just call me Set, Pops?" He leapt back away from his father. "That aside, I almost gave you a new haircut!"

Captain Midnight immediately went and ruffled his son's hair.

"If you keep it up, you can become my new hair stylist when you graduate from Beacon." He happily joked around as he took his hand back. "Also, Russett was your grandfather's name. As long as you live here, you better get used to hearing it from me."

He put his weapons away, prompting his sons to do the same with theirs.

"That's enough. I don't want to send you to Beacon beaten half to death." He chuckled briefly. "Your mother would make sure I'm next on the half-to-death list."

A familiar voice responded to that. "You can say that again, mister."

All three of them turned to the source, only to be met by an equally familiar figure. It was a female Faunus, easily given away by her wolf ears, which were the same shade of white as her hair. She was wearing a high-collared, sleeveless blue blouse under a long, loose-fitting white dress, red-and-black gloves, and a pair of white cut-out ankle boots. Her hair was long, she had yellow eyes, and her skin tone was lighter than those of the men before her.

"Oh, hey, Ma!" Set seemed quite pleased to see his mother.

She approached the two younger men. "So, how are my boys doing?"

"We got whooped." He reluctantly answered her. "Again."

In response, she gave him some reassuring pats on the back.

"They still have a long way to go before they can confront the outside world, but they should do alright at Beacon." The older man shrugged and grinned at her. "Who knows? Maybe Ozpin can teach them how to beat me."

She had a good laugh at this as he embraced her. "Ever the comedian, huh?"

"You love it. You know you do." He turned his attention away from her to look at their two boys. "You should be proud, honey. Our sons are becoming true Huntsmen."

Kale chuckled for a moment. "Well, technically, we're not quite there yet, but thanks for the encouragement, Dad."

"Oh, you two will do just fine. I know it." His mother smiled warmly at him.

Set rolled his eyes to the side sadly. "Well, maybe we will once I fix this weapon that your blade broke…"

That statement got both adults' attention. Right away, they noticed that their son's comment was not an exaggeration: his weapon, a long platinum-colored chain with a sharp, pyramid-shaped end, which had been christened as Moon Sherbet, had suffered some damage during that last attack.

"…Woof."

Right at that moment, the female turned to her husband, a glare plastered on her face.

"Axel Midnight… did you just wreck our son's weapon _on the same day_ he and his brother were scheduled to leave for Beacon?"

Her tone immediately made his skin crawl.

"It was an accident, Bianca!" He turned to his son, looking somewhat embarrassed. "I'm sorry, Russett. I guess all that training must've worn it down."

Kale gave him a few pats on the back. "It's alright, little brother. I'm pretty sure we have enough time to fix it." He looked at his father. "Right, Dad?"

"Right." Axel nodded. "I think I still have some spare parts inside the house."

Bianca scoffed at him. "You _think_ , or you _hope_?"

That got him to chuckle; he was already used to his wife's unrelenting snark.

"Actually…" After some thinking, he turned to his other son. "Kale, bring your weapon as well."

He saluted him in response. "Yes, sir."

The four started making their way back to their home.

"…I'm sorry I broke your gift, Ma. I'll be more careful in the future…" Set's spirits had plummeted after seeing the state of his weapon. "I don't get it. Crimson Fang is just fine…" He looked at his mech claws, which, true to his words, seemed intact. "…but Moon Sherbet…"

Bianca patted his head. "That's alright, sweetie. I know your dad will fix it."

"Oh, I'll do more than just fix it." Axel had a little smirk on his face.

* * *

Once they were inside, he guided his sons to his workshop where a chest laid on top of a table. When he opened it, there was a black metal plate in the shape of their weapons.

"I got it from a friend who owed me some favors. You can only find it in Atlas. This baby won't break so easily." He chuckled. "He said this metal can also work flawlessly with virtually any Dust."

Bianca smirked at him. "It's not who I think it is, right?"

"No, honey, it wasn't Kai." Axel started working on his son's weapons. "Now your weapons will work just fine with all types of Dust, not just fire. Just… try not go overboard when you buy ammo for them."

"Great!" Kale's face lit up almost instantly. "I was starting to wonder what it'd be like to have them work like that." He raised his arms. "I didn't have a lot of resources when I was building these, y'know."

Axel sighed sadly. "Yeah… ever since the White Fang started antagonizing the Schnee family, materials for smithing and tempering are either really expensive or really hard to find. And that's not even getting into Dust itself."

Eventually, he managed to complete his work on Moon Sherbet and Crimson Fang. He turned to Set and handed them to him.

"Go ahead. Try them out."

As Set equipped his mech claws, Kale took off his weapons and handed them to his father.

"…Alright."

To the Faunus boy's surprise, they fit his hands like a glove; he distinctly remembered them being a touch oversized for him before.

He then lunged himself toward a target dummy, slicing it like a shooting star flying through the night sky.

"Well, Crimson Fang is A-OK. Now…" He hesitantly looked at Moon Sherbet and exhaled heavily.

Both his parents and brother noticed the expression on his face; it was a clear display of both concern and fear.

He grasped his chain stronger than ever before and fired Moon Sherbet. However, before it could fly away, he stopped the chain in its tracks, creating an enormous amount of pressure. He then withdrew and fired it in the span of a single second. It hit the dummy's head dead center, which blew it to mere hay bits.

"Bullseye." The young Faunus looked at his father. "Well, Pops, I gotta say it. You did a fantastic job."

Axel laughed. "Looks like those smithing classes I took really paid off in the end." He then wiped the sweat off of his forehead before he started working on Kale's weapons. "Remember, son: learning something new never killed anybody."

"I could've told you that." Bianca's response got a chuckle out of him once again. "How else would I have built a weapon for my little boy?"

Kale nodded. "I know what you mean, Mom."

After some time, Axel blew some dust off of the two pieces, inspecting them shortly after.

"Hmm… yeah, it's ready." He handed them over to Kale. "Your turn, son."

The young man took his weapons, put them back on his arms, and then he brought out the wrist-mounted blade on his right arm protector.

"Okay then."

In just a few swift moves, he stopped in front of another training dummy in the room, stabbed it in several different places, sliced its head off, and ran the blade through its head.

"Wow…" He turned around to look at his father, who was quite amused at the surprised expression on his face. "That was unreal."

Set was equally amused at the sight of his brother's perfect control of his weapon. "Props, big bro. That was savage!"

Bianca was the only one who laughed, however.

"Aww, you two…" She pulled the two of them close and hugged them. "I'm so proud of you, boys."

After a few minutes, Axel started to pull Bianca away from her children.

"Come on, honey, let them go. Otherwise, you'll never want them to leave."

* * *

Eventually, the time came when an airship dropped by to pick up future students and send them to Beacon Academy.

"Well, this is it, boys." Bianca had some trouble getting the words out there.

Axel approached both of his children and laid his hands on their shoulders.

"Just like your mother, I could not be more proud of what you have become. Russett, Kale, I know in my heart that you will become great Huntsmen." He smiled at them. "In time, the world will always depend on a new generation. Your time has come, and both your mother and I just know you'll be two of the greatest Huntsmen to ever represent Vacuo. You both have the makings to do so."

He turned his sights to his older son.

"Kale… always thinking through before acting. Your wit, your natural control of your weapon, which isn't exactly easy to manage, and your calm, collected, and analytical way to manage things are your greatest strengths."

Then he looked at his younger boy.

"Russett… your strength and spirit are admirable, your strategies are sound, and you're more perceptive than anyone I've met before. You're a born leader, even if you don't want to see it yourself."

After saying this, he stepped back.

"I know your old teachers, like your combat instructor Mr. Vert, and your battlefield strategies mentor Lady Rouge, would agree with me. Your mother and I know you won't let us down."

"Thanks, Dad." Kale turned to his mother. "We're going to carry both of your family names proudly for as long as we're at Beacon and beyond. I promise."

Set nodded. "Yeah, those Grimm don't stand a chance against your training, old man. Let them pray they don't cross us!"

After his valor-filled words, his eyes lost their vigor for a moment. He placed his right hand on his left shoulder and looked away, as if trying to hide something.

Axel chuckled at the display before he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

"Aren't you forgetting something, dear?"

When he turned around, he saw Bianca looking right at him.

"What? Oh, right…" He pulled some Lien out of his pocket. "Here you go, boys. Buy yourselves something to eat should you get hungry on your way to Beacon."

Bianca sighed. "The _other_ thing, dear…"

"Other thing… other thing…"

Suddenly, his eyes widened.

"Oh, right, of course!" He lightly slapped his palm against his forehead. "I almost forgot!"

He took off the green jacket he was wearing and passed it over to Kale.

"Here you go, son… a little something to remember me by."

"Wow…" The young man was quite elated as he took it. "But… isn't this from your old days? Y'know, back during your term of service?"

Axel nodded, with a content smile on his face.

"I… I-I don't know what to say." As he put it on, he was pleased to find it actually fit him decently. "I'll take good care of it. Bet on that."

"I know you will, Kale."

Meanwhile, Bianca approached Set. "As for me, of course I didn't forget my pup." She handed him a dark brown cloak and a necklace that resembled a fang piercing a crescent moon. "Here you go, sweetheart."

"But… these…" He seemed very legitimately surprised.

Bianca, in turn, looked somewhat puzzled. "Is something wrong, dear?"

Set could feel a knot in his throat.

"These are Great Papa Prowl's…" He kept quiet for a moment, grasped his family heirloom, and looked at his mother, dead in the eye. "Thanks. I'll make sure to honor his memory."

After a loving hug, Bianca looked at her youngest son, and smiled. "You know… you look just like your grandfather when he was your age."

Axel placed his hand on his wife's shoulder, letting her know the time had come for her children to board the ship.

She gave Set and Kale one last bear hug, and saw them walk away, waving goodbye as they did. Axel and Bianca waved back, as they saw the young men they raised walk away from their home, and towards a new life that was just about to begin.

* * *

Okay, we've made it to the end of the very first chapter. Normally, this would be the spot where I ramble about stuff, but for this particular source material, there's an actual purpose that we can use it for. When it comes to this series, it's an established fact that everyone's name must allude to a color in some way, barring some deliberate exceptions, so we're going to use this spot to explain the intended meaning behind any new characters' names. Here goes the first list:

\- Kale Midnight: _Kale_ is a green vegetable. When adding in the last name, it alludes to "midnight green".  
\- Russett "Set" Prowl: _Russet_ is a dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge. Adding an extra T at the end was a deliberate choice to make it distinct.  
\- Axel Midnight: Taken by itself, _midnight_ is a shade of purple.  
\- Bianca Prowl: _Bianca_ is the Italian form of the French word _blanche_ , which means "white".  
\- Vert: _Vert_ is French for "green".  
\- Rouge: _Rouge_ is French for "red".

We sincerely hope you've enjoyed this. Review, if you please, and let us know what you think. We welcome any and all feedback, good or bad, so long as you keep it civil.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Okay, so, no time wasted here. I promised I'd make as many updates as I could during the next few days, and we've outlined most of what we'll be doing here in advance, so I intend to do my best to keep it. For anyone who didn't just give up after the first chapter, or even just gave up on me completely after my silence, we all really hope you'll like what's coming up next.

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

As the birds soared all over the sky, the shadow of the Beacon airships could be spotted traversing it. Inside each of them, the next generation of Huntsmen and Huntresses were eagerly awaiting to start the training for what could possibly be the beginning of their lives in the outside world.

"This… is really happening." Set couldn't believe his eyes. "Bro… we're actually gonna be Huntsmen. I almost… it feels like I'm in a crazy dream… except there's no strawberry sundaes in this one."

Kale looked equally impressed. "I know… I'd almost think this was just another dream if I hadn't pinched myself about seven times already."

"Eight, actually. You used both hands to pinch yourself that one time." That was the response of a female voice behind them.

When they turned around, a blue-haired girl, about the same height as Set, was waving at them with a very big smile. She was wearing a light blue sleeveless jacket on top of a navy tube top, black fingerless gloves, a pair of brown leather bracelets with bullet-shaped ornaments on them, green pants and brown boots. She also had a drop leg pouch attached to a belt and strapped to her left leg, gray kneepads, and what looked like a red bandanna tied around her right arm. Her hair was short, and she had turquoise eyes, along with a pale complexion.

"Hiya! I'm Maza. Maza Reynard." Her voice seemed boundless in its happiness. "Are you going to Beacon too? No, wait… of course you are. You mentioned it just moments ago. Would you like to be friends?" She asked the brothers, leaving little to no space between sentences.

Upon taking a closer look, they also noticed she had a fox tail that seemed incapable of staying still.

"…You're… interesting." Set seemed puzzled, finding this new acquaintance… blissful.

"I'll say." On the other hand, Kale's response was much more direct. "It's nice to see another Faunus looking to be a Huntsman… or rather, Huntress, in this case." He offered his hand to her. "Pleased to meet you, Maza. I'm Kale Midnight."

"Set Prowl." Set winked while offering a casual greeting.

She giggled. "Nice to meet you both."

After shaking Kale's hand, she took a seat next to them.

"Say… are you really, like, _brother_ brothers?" She looked very interested as she asked her question. "I mean, I've heard of humans marrying Faunus before, but it's pretty rare, and they usually have kids of their own before getting together."

Kale nodded in response. "That's right. We've got the same parents."

"Soooo… why do you have different last names?"

"I take after our mom, while he decided to follow the footsteps of our old man." Set answered with a smile. It sounded like he took pride in his response to the young lady.

Maza's eyes widened in realization. "Oooohhhh, I get it. You want to make sure that both of their family names will be remembered across Remnant. You want to make both of their legacies proud."

"Pretty much, yes." That was all Kale had to add.

"That is so cool."

Right before he could say anything else, though, she spoke again, once more going rather quickly.

"Can you tell me how your parents met? Pretty please? I bet it was a story of romance, adventure and a blooming forbidden love that defied what society believed to be a solid statement! I bet your dad used to be a cold-hearted soldier that used to dislike Faunus and your mother was a sweet, innocent wolf down on her luck, who had to resort to stealing, and was in need of a kind heart to rescue her…" Maza continued narrating her lovely fairy tale, thinking of it as some kind of romantic novel, with an awestruck expression on her face.

"Okay, sweetheart… I think you've been reading lovey-dovey novels a bit too much." Set's face gave away his surprise. "Alright, we'll tell ya."

"Yay!" Maza hugged him from the excitement. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She let go and sat on the floor next to them, like a kid expecting to hear a fairy tale. "Ready when you are."

Right as Set was about to begin, the pilot's voice began to echo around the airship interior.

" _Attention, everyone. Beacon Academy is dead ahead. We're about to land._ "

"Awww, really?!" Maza looked down, disappointed at the poor timing.

Set placed his hand on her head and ruffled her hair. "Easy, cupcake. I'll tell you some time after we land."

"Okay!" Immediately switching moods, Maza stood up and gave the two brothers a hug before waving goodbye. "See you then!"

As the two watched her leave, Kale made one more comment on the matter.

"Well… she seems nice."

* * *

Once outside the ship and taking their luggage, the two brothers managed to get a perfect view of the academy as other students were walking towards it, weapon in hand.

"Wow… look at that." Kale couldn't help but comment on it. "We're here. Beacon Academy." After checking their surroundings for a bit, he laughed a little. "I think I'm going to need another moment to take it in."

Set chuckled, and looked up. "I feel my tail wagging. Is it wagging? I think it's wagging. It is, isn't it?"

"Don't look so impressed. It's just a castle."

A tall figure walked past them before stopping in his tracks and looking back. He was clad in a sleeveless, tight-fitting brown shirt with black trim, white baggy pants with multiple pockets, a pair of what looked like metallic arm guards, a long, thick white scarf, and brown boots with black accents. He had short, spiky white hair, green eyes, a fair complexion, and some kind of band on his right arm.

"If there is anything to be impressed about, it's probably inside." He then walked away without another word.

Suddenly, a big commotion was heard not too far away from them. Once Set and Kale reached the source of said noise, they could see two girls, one of which was covered in smoke.

"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" She also looked pretty angry.

Conversely, the other one just seemed kind of embarrassed. "I'm really, _really_ sorry."

"You complete dolt!"

As the argument continued, the two brothers exchanged an uncomfortable look that easily spoke for itself. Without so much as a word, they started to leave the scene, when they were startled by a different sound.

"Wow! Talk about starting the semester with a bang, right?" Maza appeared out of nowhere, casually walking right between the two of them. "Hi again, guys!"

The two boys had the same reaction. "Maza?"

"That's me!" They noticed that she was carrying a blue backpack, as well as couple of suitcases with her. "What are you doing?"

Kale tried to shake off the surprise and answer. "Well, we were taking a moment to take all of this in. I mean, wow. Beacon Academy. It's beyond impressive." He cleared his throat. "Then we heard an explosion, and there was this girl in a red hood and another one who was covered in smoke, and there was a crater near them… aaaand we decided not to stick around to see the end of it, because they were arguing and it's honestly kind of scary."

"Oh, that's just Ruby, probably getting herself into another little mess. Don't worry about it." She replied in a very casual manner.

That got his attention. "You know them? Or, rather… one of them?"

"Yeah, the girl in the hood. I said 'hi' to her when we were on the airship, just like with you guys." Maza calmly explained herself. "She said her name was Ruby Rose. We didn't talk too much, but she seemed pretty nice. Maybe we'll see her around."

Set smirked at this. "Why not? She seems absolutely adorable."

Almost immediately afterwards, she put her arms around both of her companions and pulled them closer.

"Isn't this exciting?! All three of us are gonna be classmates, I just know it!" Her sights turned to the school building just as quickly. "Hey, everyone else is going there. Come on, let's go!"

* * *

Eventually, the trio made their way to their destination: the auditorium. Right away, they were instantly blown away by the huge amount of people present there.

Kale scratched the side of his neck, clearly uncomfortable. "And here I thought the airship already had lots of people in it."

"Can someone pet me? I feel uncomfty." Set awkwardly spoke in a softer tone of voice. "This is making me uneasy."

Maza immediately complied, saying nothing but never losing her smile.

Suddenly, the three were startled by the sound of a microphone being powered on. As they turned to the source, they noticed a man standing right in front of said microphone. He had gray hair and was wearing a black suit and green shirt, as well as a pair of glasses. He also held a cane in one hand.

"Guys… it's him." The Faunus girl spoke once more, coming off like she was trying not to explode with excitement for once. "It's Professor Ozpin."

As though on cue, he began to talk.

"I'll… keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

He turned to his left and stepped away from the microphone, while a blonde lady with a purple cape took his place. Thanks to a brief appearance via hologram during their flight, the group was able to remember her name: Glynda Goodwitch.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

As she and Professor Ozpin left the stage, the brothers noticed the same man they interacted with when they left the airship, who was heading towards the headmaster.

"Excuse me, Professor Ozpin."

At the sound of his name, he turned around. "Yes?"

"I'm pretty sure I heard it incorrectly, but did Professor Goodwitch just say that all of us will be spending the night in the ballroom without any kind of supervision?" The man seemed uneasy in regards to the idea.

"Will that be a problem for you, young man?" Ozpin asked him, adjusting his glasses as he did.

"It's a general problem, Professor. You are leaving a crowd of 17-year-old boys and girls in one room with no supervision, and hoping that nothing out of place will happen. 'Risky' doesn't even begin to describe that idea."

"Would you take part in such matters?"

"Of course not! I came here to learn, not play Hook-up!"

"Then there is nothing to worry about." Ozpin started to walk again. "The ballroom has a second tier. You are welcome to stay in the upper level if your female classmates represent that much of a hassle to you."

"What? No! Professor, that is not what I…" The young man tried to reply, but Ozpin was already gone by then. "…meant."

He sighed and started to walk away, when he noticed Set, Kale and Maza looking at him.

"Can I help you?"

"Uh…" Kale was the first to say something in response. "W-We're just… standing here."

Maza calmly asked him a question. "Why are you afraid of sleeping next to girls?"

"It's not fear. It's a matter of principle. We are supposed to be here to learn how to become Huntsmen and Huntresses, not to have sleepovers and eat candy."

"That's it? I thought you were afraid of the idea of girls sleeping naked." She smiled at him. "We don't, by the way. Well, at least I don't. I'm not sure about the other girls here, but I'm sure they still would put some clothes on."

"I told you, it's not fear!" He loudly replied, looking quite exasperated, before taking a moment to calm down. "Look, it doesn't matter, alright? I just thought things would be more serious around here. That's it."

He then walked away from the trio, Maza waving goodbye to him as he did.

Kale blinked a few times. "Well… that's going to be one grumpy classmate."

"And he might be scared of girls' jammies." Set snorted and laughed hysterically.

Maza stopped waving. "Poor guy… I hope he gets over his fears. In time, he should have no problems when they invite him to real sleepovers!"

Kale gave an awkward chuckle. "I don't know, Maza… he doesn't look like the kind of person who likes that sort of thing."

That got her to look at him.

"Actually, I'd be surprised if he said he liked anything. He seems like a very no-nonsense kind of guy."

The Faunus girl laughed at that. "Come on, Kale… everyone loves something! You just need to find out what. He's quiet, but I bet there's _something_ he likes!"

"He looks like he loves duty more than anything. Good luck trying to get'im to score." Set held no words back for his response.

Amused by her friend's reaction, Maza turned away from him, and she quickly noticed that most everyone had already begun to do their own thing.

"Anyway, it looks like we have the rest of the day for ourselves." She turned to the two brothers again. "Would you like to have a sparring session?"

Set looked at his brother. "You up for it, bro? I'd like to sharpen my claws. Oughta be blunt already."

"Alright, sounds like fun." Kale shrugged with a smile.

* * *

There we go… two chapters. We've gotten past the first few moments for our little group, and things are definitely going to get more interesting from this point on.

We don't really have an extensive list this time, since there's only one name to account for in this chapter. When it comes to our chipper little fox girl, Maza Reynard, her name was based on a color shade called "mazarine blue", which also happens to be the name of a particular kind of butterfly, if you can believe it.

Like I said before, on behalf of all three of us, we really hope you've liked this so far. And no, I'm not going to leave you hanging for months this time; I'll be working on an update within the next few days. If you liked what you've seen so far, then stay tuned.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Here we go. Just as I promised, here's another update. Seems like we've been having a perfectly decent response so far, so I think this is as good a time as any to keep the train going. Proofreading and cleanup are finally done, so here goes another chapter for our collab!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

When they woke up the following day, Set and Kale expected a number of things. A hearty breakfast. Meeting up with Maza again. A trip to the locker room. A complicated test.

"What do you mean by 'no'?"

The crabby girl from yesterday talking to the overly serious young man who didn't like the sleeping accommodations? Not so much.

"Exactly what I said, miss." He was using a screwdriver to work on some kind of drill that was strapped to his right arm, not even bothering to look at the white-haired girl. "I'm not interested in joining forces."

She was clearly confused by this. "Do you even know what you're refusing?"

"Oh, believe me, I know _exactly_ what you're getting at, Weiss Schnee." He finished working on it and retracted it, transforming the drill into one of the arm guards he was wearing yesterday, before finally looking at the woman in front of him. "You're obviously here to try and form the strongest team ever and bring your family's name to the top once more."

She nodded. "Exactly! I'm offering you a chance to be on my team! Don't you see what that represents? Dust, parts, and most of all, you are one of the few students that passed the entrance exam without any kind of formal training, so my finesse and technique should easily compliment your natural talent! It makes perfect sense for us to team up!"

"Your opinion, my opinion… they don't matter." He was completely unfazed by her words. "If Ozpin and Goodwitch say we are going to be teammates, then fine, I will bite the bullet." He began to walk away. "But until then, my answer is still 'no'."

"Wait!"

Weiss began to chase after him, but then he pointed to his right.

"Hey, isn't that Pyrrha Nikos?"

"What? Where?" Weiss dashed away at high speed, allowing the man to leave the locker room.

As the three friends watched the scene unfold, Maza couldn't help but laugh.

"Wow, first day and he already has a fan? Go, grumpy!" She looked back at Set. "And you said he wouldn't get any."

"Speaking of fans, look at that dude. The one in the green shirt." He pointed at said person, and the others turned in the same direction. "That girl has been on top of him ever since I first looked at him." Right at that moment, something occurred to him. "…Does he _always_ wear that?"

"I think he actually slept in it." Kale said in response. "That's kind of weird."

Set leaned back slightly, trying to catch another glimpse of the guy as he walked away. He then chuckled at the thought.

Maza opened her locker and grabbed two small objects.

"Oh, I'm so excited!" She started to giggle and jump in place. "In just a few minutes, we will officially start our new lives as actual Huntsmen and Huntresses-in-training!" She strapped the items, which looked a little like holsters, to the sides of her belt. "What do you think the big secret initiation will be? Do you think we'll fight a Grimm? Maybe we'll participate in some kind of colosseum-style tournament. Oh, or maybe it's something even better, like an obstacle course!"

Set turned to his brother while she was distracted. "Geez, why do I keep thinking about pink cupcakes when I see her?"

In response, Kale shrugged.

"No idea. I'll say this, though…" As he turned to look in her direction, he let out a chuckle. "…I like it."

"Well, whatever the test is, there's one thing I'm certain about." Maza suddenly got between the two brothers and pulled them into a group hug. "I want to be on your team! I like you guys, and I would love to spend the next four years with you. Besides, we Faunus need to stick together, right?" She looked at her taller friend. "And I mean you too, Kale."

"Well, sunshine, we'll see." Set's responses were short. "We'll know soon enough."

Right at that moment, the speaker in the locker room turned on, and the voice of Glynda Goodwitch was heard all around.

" _Would all first-year students please report to Beacon Cliff for initiation? Again, all first-year students report to Beacon Cliff immediately._ "

"Beacon Cliff?! Oh, that sounds like fun! Come on! I don't wanna be late!" Maza told the brothers, right before she zoomed out of the locker room.

As he watched her leave, Kale took a deep breath. "Well, bro… looks like this is it." Then he turned to his younger brother. "Let's promise each other something, alright?"

"Do you even need to ask?" Set smirked.

Kale had a laugh, having guessed he would say that.

"Whether we end up on the same team, or on two completely separate ones… we're going to pull this off. We're going to do our best, we'll be at the Vytal Festival Tournament, and we're going to graduate without breaking a sweat… or by breaking as many as we can. Whatever works."

"Dude… you got it. I promised Ma I would honor Great Papa Prowl's memory. Heck, I was named after him. What kind of Huntsman would I be if I can't do something as simple as keep my word?" Set then turned to his brother. "No sweat. We'll do this in no time flat."

"Alright, great." In turn, he started to leave. "Let's get going then. I don't think they'll wait for us forever."

"Yeah, and we gotta find Foxy anyway."

* * *

After a brief walk, the three of them found themselves at the edge of a cliff, where Ozpin and Glynda were patiently waiting for all the students to arrive, before instructing them to stand on top of some cement squares placed in line in front of the edge. Maza seemed quite amused at the sight of the headmaster holding a coffee mug, but then her attention was diverted when she noticed Ruby Rose standing over on the right side of the group… which she seemed to find equally as amusing, for some reason.

It wasn't until the last student arrived that Ozpin started to explain the test.

"For years, you have trained to become warriors, and today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

"Now, I'm sure many of you have heard rumors about the assignment of 'teams'." Glynda picked up from there almost immediately. "Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates… _today_."

Kale's eyes widened at that. "Well… that was quick."

At the mention of that, Weiss didn't waste time in catching the attention of the guy she was talking to earlier, which he responded to in the form of a grunt.

"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon, so it is in your best interest to be paired with someone with whom you can work well." Ozpin explained soon after. "That being said, the first person with whom you make eye contact after your landing will be your partner for the next four years."

"What?!" Both Ruby and the guy next to Weiss were alarmed by that last part.

Maza leaned over and whispered something to Kale. "We better try to stay close when we land."

"Uh, Professor…" The guy tried to talk, but Ozpin just continued before he could say anything else.

"After you've partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way." A few students were unnerved by the calm way in which he explained the following part. "Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path… or you _will_ die."

Kale suddenly chuckled awkwardly. "That's… encouraging."

"Ooh, an obstacle course! I knew it! I knew we would do something like this!" Maza smiled as her tail began to move around.

Set let out a small laugh. "Obstacles? Clearly, you've never put up with my old man's training before. We'll slice through 'em no prob." He overflowed with confidence as he readied his weapon.

Ozpin gave the students a moment to let the information really sink into their minds before continuing. "You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You'll find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one, and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?"

A young blond man at the end of the line raised his hand. "Yeah, um… sir?"

"Good." The headmaster said in response, as though he didn't hear that. "Now, take your positions."

At that command, the rest of the students took their stances, ready to begin, with the exception of the young man who admitted to having questions. "Uh, sir? I've got, um… a question."

Soon the platforms sprung to life, and one by one, the students were launched into the air.

"See you on the other side!" Maza waved to her friends before flying off.

Kale took a deep breath, grabbed the goggles hanging from his neck, and put them on. "Well… I guess today's a good day to fly." Almost immediately after, he was catapulted into the air as well.

"Heh… look out, Grimm. The Big Bad Wolf's comin' to get'cha…!" Set got into position before his platform launched him into the forest.

Weiss gave the guy next to her one last reminder as he readied his drills. "Remember… best interest!"

Without so much as a reaction, he was launched, with her following shortly after.

* * *

As the students neared the ground, some relied on their skills to land safely, while others made use of their weaponry.

One particular student's weapons could be heard as trees fell one after the other in a straight line before the sound came to a stop in the middle of the forest.

Once he unhooked his drills from the last tree, the young man started to look around, noticing a variety of shadows descending in front of or around him, before disappearing in the foliage. Taking a deep breath, he retracted his drills before undoing the scarf he was wearing and staring at it intensely, remembering Ozpin's words.

 _First person I make eye contact with, eh?_

Smiling, he put the scarf over his eyes and tied it up to the end of his head.

 _Let's see what happens if I_ _ **don't**_ _see anyone._

After tying a rather strong knot, he put his hands together and stood still in complete silence, taking a couple minutes to control his breathing.

"Gotcha!" Springing into action, the man started to run forward, avoiding or cutting any and all trees on his way.

* * *

Right above a different part of the forest, Kale took a good look at the area that he would eventually land in.

 _Alright… be careful now. Just try to avoid getting hit by branches._

Despite his hopes that this flight would be somewhat safe, the incoming trees had grown enough branches that any sort of unprepared landing would be extremely painful. After taking a longer look at the incoming obstacles, he sighed.

 _…Oh, who am I kidding?_

Convinced that he would have to clear up a path for himself, he stretched his right arm out. Right at that moment, a long, sharp blade came out of the forearm protector he was wearing, and after making sure his flight path was straight, he started to spin around rapidly in the air. As he did this, he just closed his eyes, since he knew he would be unable to see what came next.

If anyone was watching, they might be mildly surprised by how this tactic actually got him through unscathed… and then they would scratch their heads while trying to figure out how he disappeared from behind the shadow of a tree.

* * *

At the same time, in a different section of the forest, the distinct sound of a chain could be heard. Set was making use of Moon Sherbet to reach faraway branches and pull himself towards them. Once they were within reach, he would stand on top of them, and then he'd jump towards the next one. Eventually, after doing this for a while, he finally managed to land, his feet planted firmly on the ground.

After landing on the broad greens, Set immediately picked up some kind of scent, which he followed shortly after.

"Hmm… I'm intrigued… wonder what I'll find?" He sniffed the air a couple times.

He set off on its trail, swiftly rushing to the source, all while wondering who, or what, the scent belonged to.

* * *

Meanwhile, at yet another part of the forest, Maza was checking for any obstacles that might get in her way as she started to descend. Much to her delight, she was fortunate enough to be heading in the direction of a group of trees that didn't have a great number of branches.

 _Perfect! I know just what to do!_

As she kept on losing altitude, the Faunus girl started to move in the air, getting herself into position.

Finally, once she was in range, she landed on the nearest tree branch that she could find. She didn't stay there for too long, however, as she immediately jumped in the direction of the next one she could see, making use of the momentum she still had. After a few jumps, she finally managed to slow down to a more manageable speed.

 _Okay, here we go!_

Before her last jump, she took out her weapons from their holsters: two sticks, which extended into a pair of batons. If there were any onlookers, they might've been concerned when it seemed like she wouldn't be able to land on the next branch, but then they would breathe a sigh of relief once they saw her use her batons to grab onto it. After spinning a few times, she finally let go of the branch, managing to score a safe landing right next to the tree.

"That was fun!" She took a moment to put her weapons away. "Alright, let's see what's out there."

Without another word, she began to make her way through the forest.

* * *

While running through the forest, the self-blinded man stopped when he suddenly heard steps closing in on him. Thinking fast, he shot one of his drills towards a tree branch and climbed. Shortly after, he heard two people passing by.

 _Hmmm… one I don't recognize, but the other one… that is clearly Schnee. I would recognize those high heels any… wait, what's that sound?_

Once they walked away, he climbed down and heard some howls not too far away from where he stood. As he turned around, the growls and howls kept on getting closer.

 _Beowolves? Well, I suppose I could use the practice._

He smirked as he heard the creatures of Grimm approaching, as well as stopping once they saw a blindfolded human casually walking toward them. While their faces, which were identical to those of actual wolves, except all black and almost seemed to have white masks on them, did not allow for much emotion, he could tell they were confused.

"I don't know why you decided to start a fire, or even how you figured out how to do so, but it will be a problem if the flame spreads." The tips of his drills opened up. "I'd better put it out."

He jumped towards the Beowolves, just as they did the same. Making use of some ice Dust, the man created ice spears, which he used to impale a few of the Grimm, also making use his drills for the same purpose on others. At the same time, some of the ice landed near the fire, putting it out once it started to melt.

The remaining Grimm tried to surround him, but he quickly blocked their way by breaking the bases of some nearby trees, before hitting them on the stomach. The larger one tried to slash him, but the man managed to dodge it and impale one of its paws into the ground, causing it to scream in pain until he put one drill in his mouth.

"Say 'ahh'." His drill started spinning inside its mouth, piercing through until it fainted.

Once all of his enemies were taken care of, the man shot some more ice into the fire. In a matter of moments, the flames started to dissipate, and were eventually doused. Satisfied with his job, he took a moment to breathe before moving forward once again.

* * *

Yep, we've gotten to this point now, and let me tell you, this was an interesting one. We had to hand the controls over from one to the other over and over and over again, so there was a lot of effort put into figuring out how we'd get each one of our characters to do their thing, especially since some ideas came much slower than others, but we really felt satisfied with how it turned out. Here's hoping you'll feel the same way.

No new names to account for this time, so yeah, nothing here.

Well, the time has come for the final test, and so far, we've had four landings and one action sequence. Next time, we'll just pick up from where we're at, so for those who care enough to read beyond this, keep your eyes peeled for our next update.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	4. Chapter 4

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Well, just as promised, it's time to keep going straight from the end of the last chapter. It's time to show what these guys can do when they're stuck out in the battlefield. So, without further ado, here's yet another new chapter from us to you!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

After actively following the source of the scent he perceived before, Set found himself in a rather empty-looking section of the forest.

He sniffed the air a couple times. "There's no mistaking it. Whatever that stench is, it's coming from this—"

He was interrupted by a snarl coming from not too far away, within the bushes and behind the trees. Soon after, two Beowolves approached him. As he took his stance, he smirked a bit.

"Y'know? As stinky as you are—and trust me, you are—the stench is just a bit more intense than yours. How's it we stop playing hide-and-stink?"

As if on cue, a much bigger beast, which he was able to identify as an Alpha Beowolf, entered the field of battle from within the trees. He showed little to no surprise, despite his mild concern.

"Woof."

The Beowolves started surrounding him. He sighed lightly, looked at the Alpha, and smiled confidently.

"Alright. Let's dance."

The Beowolf to his left lunged towards him, receiving a kick straight to the jaw, and, having said Beowolf stunned at his feet, he let out a little laugh, petted the Grimm's head three times, turned his back on it, and moved in to neutralize the next one. The Grimm was able to match Set's movements, until the Faunus boy exhaled hardly, fired Moon Sherbet towards a tree, and altered its course, forcing the chain to constrict it. He then pulled said chain strongly, causing the tree's trunk to split, with its upper half falling on the Grimm.

"When I said 'let's dance', that was not what I meant."

He then heard the Alpha approaching rapidly. In response, he turned around, and caught its jaw with his hands, catching a whiff of the foul creature's breath.

"Whoo! Sweet crescent moons! And here I thought Pops' farts were legend-worthy!"

Making use of his mechanical claws, Set forced the creature's mouth closed and pierced its head from underneath, which caused the Alpha to stop moving entirely. He then planted his grandfather's chain right in the creature's jaw area and jumped up and forward, boosting his jump using the Grimm's own head. He then pulled on the chain, and the creature's neck twisted harshly, causing it to drop to the ground, lifeless.

After landing, Set looked at the Alpha and one of the fallen Beowolves.

"Wait. One's mi—"

The remaining Beowolf slashed his back before he could finish that sentence.

Such an action was met with a rather angry Faunus, who openly snarled at his enemy.

"You're gonna regret that…"

Set took a quadrupedal stance, bared his teeth to the Grimm, and seemed to suddenly vanish from its range of sight. All of a sudden, the creature moaned in pain, and upon turning to its left, found four slash marks on its leg. Another moan was followed by a long, thicker slash on its right arm. The foul being looked to its front, just in time to see Set right in front of it. Before it could even try to process what was happening, the Faunus boy swiped at it using his claws.

Set landed on all fours, and the Grimm's head soon followed, landing right behind him. He then stood up straight, and as he turned around, he saw the head, which landed with its mouth open.

"Made you woof."

He then picked up a different scent. While it took him a few whiffs, he was eventually able to identify it.

"Kale!"

Set then proceeded to follow the scent, heading towards his brother.

* * *

"Nice job, Kale. Great going."

Much like his brother, the young man found himself surrounded by Grimm. Unlike him, however, not only was he met by a pack of Ursai, which resembled bears instead of wolves, but he wasn't happily taunting them either. He was too busy berating himself.

"Only you could avoid a bunch of branches and manage to get yourself in even bigger trouble while doing so."

He checked his surroundings. Other than his current opponents, there didn't seem to be anything that might turn things around. On the bright side, however, he noticed that none of them seemed to be an Ursa Major.

As he did so, he ended up facing what seemed like the biggest one in the entire pack.

"H-Hello." He laughed nervously. "Can we… talk about this?"

In response, the Ursa merely roared loudly right in his face.

"Right… you guys don't talk."

As if on cue, the entire pack pounced on him, their teeth and claws bared, while their target merely ducked and tried to cover himself. In a matter of seconds, they began to thrash and bite and swipe, completely eviscerating him…

…or rather, they would've, if he hadn't walked in from behind a tree to watch the mindless display.

As the Grimm kept on going, he couldn't stop himself from laughing. "Oh, I'll never get tired of that!"

It wasn't long before the beasts heard this, and as soon as they noticed that their intended victim was not where they thought he was, they turned to find him leaning on the same tree he came out of for support, still laughing like crazy.

"Never fails!" As he did so, Kale saw that the Ursai had finally caught onto his little trick. "Okay, okay… alright, I've had my fun."

Straightening himself up, he stretched out his arms, and as the pack growled at him, a blade came out from each of his forearm protectors.

"Let's do this for real."

And no sooner did he utter those words that one of the Grimm leaped forward and tried to attack him.

After ducking in order to avoid a claw swipe aimed for his head, Kale seized the opportunity and began to stab his enemy in the gut multiple times. It wasn't long before it went down, and the rest of its pack seized the opportunity to try and take him down. While he was able to block a few other swipes, one of the Ursai managed to score a hit to his back, taking advantage of his distraction.

"…I don't know why I thought you were going to play fair."

The Ursai tried to attack him all at once, much like before, but this time, he began to quickly spin in place with his arms stretched out. The moment he stopped, he noticed all his enemies were backing away.

"Wow, I can't believe that actually worked."

Much to his surprise, once they were far away from him, half of them looked like they were ready to pounce again.

"Oh, come on…"

The Ursai leapt into the air, the other half just standing and waiting.

Kale sighed, looking disappointed. He jumped up in a similar fashion, headed for one particular Ursa, and at just the right moment, he raised his arms and pointed them at his target, striking at its neck with both blades. After moving them to the sides, the Grimm was decapitated, and the young man wasted no time in using the headless body to propel himself toward the others. He struck two more, also through the neck, and upon landing, he moved his arms vertically, slicing their heads in the same fashion. Turning around to see the rest, he ran towards two others, retracting his blades.

The beasts were not intimidated by this display, heading in his direction with their teeth bared.

Ducking to avoid their claw swipes, Kale took the chance to hit them both with an uppercut, which was complemented by the firing of two submachine guns, which were located on the back of his hands. As their bodies fell back, their heads penetrated by the rounds, he pointed at another one, shooting it in the front legs, and followed that up by running toward it, putting in a headlock, bringing out the blade on his free arm, and stabbing it in the head several times.

He released it as soon as it stopped moving, but he only had a few seconds to take it in before being tackled from the back, which sent him flying against a tree.

 _Oh, man… I'll be feeling that tomorrow…_

As he struggled to stand up again, he noticed that there was one more Ursa left standing: the same one that he had taunted with his fake offer to talk.

"…I can't believe I forgot about you." He was clearly and honestly baffled. "What am I, crazy?"

The distinct sound of a chain unwinding suddenly cut the wind, which was immediately followed by the Ursa roaring sharply in pain. All of a sudden, he noticed that there were four claws piercing through the beast's neck in a vertical pattern. Afterwards, four more claws pierced next to the first four. What followed was an effort to pull each set of claws in opposite directions, ripping the beast's head off.

It was Set, who raised his head, looked at his brother straight in the eye, and uttered a simple phrase.

"Hey, teamie."

Both brothers smirked, with Set extending his fist, waiting for his brother to do the same.

"I owe you another one, little brother." Kale returned the gesture immediately after.

"At ease, soldier. This is only gonna happen more and more… on either side. Anyway, what now?"

The use of military talk got him to laugh.

"Well, to be honest, I can't think of much past 'get a relic and leave the forest'." He shrugged. "I mean, I've had about as much action as I expected, and that can only mean there's going to be more."

Set smirked again. "We might as well. Let's book it."

"Yeah, let's go."

As the two brothers left the defeated Grimm to dissipate, Kale made one more comment.

"You know, I haven't seen Maza anywhere yet. I wonder how she's doing…"

* * *

If they had been able to remain as close as intended, then perhaps they would've heard her voice, full of familiar cheer and unbridled energy, as she sang a tune to no one in particular.

… _We're gonna fight  
We're gonna fight  
The good fight~_

Maza was making her way through the forest, with a spring in her step and her hands behind her head.

Despite losing track of her newest friends during her landing, she was still determined to meet up with at least one of them and, if nothing else, get through the test together.

 _We're gonna fight  
We're gonna fight  
The good fight~_

In order to keep her spirits high as she searched for the two, she wasted no time in going through one of her favorite songs.

 _And I'm locked and loaded  
Sugar coated  
And I'm ready, baby, for you~_

She spent several minutes just walking, but she suddenly stopped when she heard something. Some sort of low growling.

"Huh? What was that?"

The Faunus girl searched around for a moment, before she eventually noticed where it came from.

"Wow, already?"

She reached out for the pouch strapped around her left leg, and took out… some beef jerky.

"I could've sworn my breakfast was big enough." She took a bite out of her snack. "It's a good thing I brought this. I'm not sure what I'm going to eat when we finish the test, though…"

She barely got to take a second bite, though, before she suddenly got a strange feeling in the back of her head.

 _Oh… there we go! I've been waiting for that to come up!_

Putting away her remaining beef jerky, Maza looked all around, not quite as randomly as when she heard her stomach rumbling.

"Okay, every Grimm that's just hiding around me? Just so you know, I know exactly where each and every one of you is hiding right now. And wow, you're a really, really, _really_ big group!" As she reached for the sides of her belt, she started smiling again. "So, who wants to be the first to come out and play? Hmm?"

Just a few seconds later, a group of five Grimm, all of them resembling boars, came out of the bushes.

"Ooh! Boarbatusks!"

As if on cue, they started spinning at high speed, rapidly heading towards Maza.

In response, she just chuckled.

She dodged them by jumping to the side, and followed this by taking out her weapons. Wasting no time, she turned to one of the beasts, which was running toward her, and hit it right between the eyes. Right after that, she brought the lower ends of her batons together.

"Woohoo! Here we go!"

Taking advantage of the situation, she used her newly-formed combat staff to hit another one of the Boarbatusks dead in the nose. She then spun it around her waist to strike a different Grimm on one of its tusks, the force of of the impact being enough to break it. She proceeded to spin her weapon from one side, past the back, and to her other side, bluntly striking its head. As one Boarbatusk spun in her direction, she smiled gleefully, almost playfully, and stepped slightly to the side in a near-cartoonish fashion, leaving her attacker to roll in the direction of the other Grimm.

"S-teeee-rike!" Right on cue, the two beasts collided, knocking each other out.

The Faunus girl jumped up and down from the excitement, but she quickly collected herself when she noticed there was one last Grimm standing.

As it began to spin in place, she slammed the bottom of her staff against the ground, releasing an electric charge that stunned it out of its attempted attack. After walking in its direction, she twirled her staff rapidly before knocking her opponent away, sending it flying against a tree and forcing it to expose its underbelly. Splitting her weapon into two batons once again, she ran towards the Boarbatusk and stabbed it with them, finishing it off.

After making sure that none of her foes would stand up again, she put her weapons away and smirked, happy at the results, and began to leave the place, the defeated Grimm's bodies dissipating as she did.

However, she suddenly turned to one specific tree and stared at it curiously for a moment.

"Hmm…"

Her eyes widened for a moment, and she started… talking to the tree?

"Hello!"

* * *

Okay, so there we go. This is what these guys act like whenever things get hairy. Not everyone gets to be cool under pressure, but hey, as long as they get the job done, there's no harm in a little silliness, is there?

One more to go before the end of this test, and so far, things are holding out pretty well. What's going to happen to our little youths after such a spectacle? You'll just have to hold out for a bit and you'll see.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Well, here we are, guys. This is the final stretch. The time has come for these guys to do what they were asked to do. Once we get past this, we can get to the more varied bits of the story. We've put a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of effort into this, so let's do it!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

Of all the ways an initiation could go…

The young man with the scarf tied around his head was contemplating how things could have possibly turned out the way they did.

…It just didn't make sense. Any of it. Things just seemed so easy earlier.

* * *

After fighting off a pack of Beowolves, he had managed to make his way through the forest with relatively minimal difficulty. Despite forcing himself to not see anything, he was feeling confident that the situation would turn out well for him.

And then he heard her.

As he ran past all the bushes and trees he could hear, a particular sound brought him to a halt. He stopped and tried to pay attention to it, but he was eventually able to hear it clearly.

 _Singing? Here? Why would anyone—_

Rather than dwell on that thought, he tried to calm himself down and concentrate on the origin of the singing. After a few moments, he was able to pick up on what seemed to be… a girl.

Not too far away from his current location, it sounded like there was a girl, seemingly skipping along as she travelled through the forest. However, he also picked up on the presence of what seemed to be some nearby Grimm; judging by the sounds they were making, he could only assume they were Boarbatusks. He could've sworn she was saying something, but he was too fixated on how they sounded like they were slowly approaching her to care.

The young man turned his head in the direction that all of this was apparently coming from. The Grimm seemed to get closer and closer, but she didn't sound like she cared about the danger.

 _Is she insane?! Those Grimm are going to eat her alive!_

He started to run towards her location. After a short sprint, he managed to reach the pack of Grimm, but before he could even think about what he would do, he suddenly heard the girl directly talking to the Grimm.

" _Just so you know, I know exactly where each and every one of you is hiding right now. And wow, you're a really, really,_ really _big group!_ "

Confused by that, the young man decided to hide in a nearby tree, jumping up to a branch and standing there. As he waited for either the Boarbatusks or the female to make their move, he realized that he recognized that voice.

It was the Faunus girl that was pestering him last night.

 _Oh, great…_

He didn't get any more time to reflect on this, as the Grimm began to attack her.

He fully expected to jump out and take care of them in a matter of seconds. As he listened intently, however, he was beyond surprised as he found himself actively paying attention to the way the battle was unfolding, intrigued by her battle style.

 _Impressive. It's like she's only being half-serious, but it's working out for her somehow. And to be able to detect so many Boarbatusks so quickly… that girl must be skilled at smelling or hearing… or she's an expert tracker._

For a second, he felt concerned, as he realized what that would mean for him.

… _Heh, no problem. Whatever trick it is she's using, it will not work on me. As long as I'm focused, I'm virtually a ghost. There's just no way she will notice my—_

Before he could finish that thought, he was surprised to hear only one set of footsteps. The girl must've finished them all off while he was lost in thought. Although they seemed to be getting closer for some reason…

" _Hello!_ "

Upon hearing that, the young man froze.

 _Impossible! She couldn't have detected me. There is no way she could… oh no, no, no!_

Much to his horror, she started to walk even closer.

 _I can't let her see me…!_

Right then and there, he could not only hear what she was doing, but he could also feel it… she was knocking on the tree.

" _Hey, I don't know how much you heard or saw, but I know you're up there!_ " He could swear she was giggling for a moment before stopping herself. " _Oh, b-but don't worry! I'm not a telepath! I swear I have no idea what you're thinking right now!_ "

Thinking fast, he jumped from branch to branch, trying to get as far away from her as he could.

" _Hey, wait! Where are you going? We need to stay together!_ " She exclaimed. " _Don't be afraid. I don't bite, I promise! Come on, let's be friends!_ "

He started to get more and more agitated by the second. No matter where he tried to hide or how quietly, it was as if she could tell exactly where he was standing.

 _How is she detecting me?! It's like she knows what I'm going to do before I do it! I need to distract her. Think… think…_

As he escaped, he tried to focus on his surroundings, hoping to detect any other students that might be close by, or anything else that could grab her attention.

His salvation came in the form of two other students, both of them male. Judging by how close they seemed to be while walking, he could only presume they had made eye contact and decided to stick together. As he listened to them talk, he realized that they were also familiar.

… _Bingo._

It was the two who were too busy gawking at Beacon Tower to actually make their way inside. The same ones that the Faunus girl was with when he had the misfortune of running into her last night. The gods could not have given him a better distraction.

Making a left turn, the man guided her toward the two brothers. He could hear her bumping into one of them; taking that as his opportunity, he kept on moving, thus making his escape into the heart of the forest easily.

* * *

"Oh, hi, Set! Nice to see you again!"

Maza had tripped and crashed right into Set, having been so focused on her search that she completely failed to notice his presence. Both of them were lying on the grass, with her casually on top of him.

"Hey, pancake. Good to see you too." Set spoke with a straight face, almost as though being tackled by a joyful girl was part of his day-by-day.

She turned her head to the side, and she noticed that Kale was also there.

"Hey, Maza." He waved at her.

That made her smile. "Hey, you found your brother! Does that mean you two are partners now?"

"Luckily, yes. He's already my battle partner too, so everything keeps adding up." Set just kept speaking to his female friend while casually lying on the forest floor. "Plus, I would have just _hated_ to be partnered with Chess McDiscipline. Too by-the-book for me to get along with him. So, you can imagine my relief."

"That's awesome." Her excitement was clear as she stood back up. "Hey! Since we're all partnered up now, all four of us can form a team!"

She offered her hand to Set and helped him rise from the floor, only to notice something she hadn't picked up on yesterday.

"Hey… your eyes… they're two different colors!" She tilted her head to the side. "How come?"

He shrugged at this.

"I dunno. Genes?"

Maza looked at him curiously. The way he said it, it came across like he was used to that question.

"My pops told me once that people with white eyes were special. Wish I knew what he meant." After covering it up with his bangs again, he turned to his brother. "Anyway, let's keep going. That relic is just waiting for us to pick it up."

"Oh, you mean the chess pieces? They're not too far away. About twenty or thirty yards away from here, in that direction." Maza casually pointed to her right.

Kale's eyes widened at that. "That was… pretty exact."

"Thanks." She smiled cheerfully at her friend. "My Semblance can come in handy when it comes to tracking Grimm or people."

"And… you know that these relics are chess pieces somehow?"

She nodded rapidly. "I can pick up these weird sort of… brain patterns?" She stopped to think for a moment, looking about as confused as her friends were. "I'm not exactly sure what to call them, actually, but I can tell when people are close, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, I can even hear bits and pieces of things they might be thinking." She turned in the direction she was pointing at. "It's not always exact, but I'm pretty sure I got something about chess pieces just now."

Kale couldn't help but stare at her for a moment.

"…Sounds like a useful ability to have, actually."

She started giggling. "Yep! I used to be the nightmare of kids playing hide-and-seek when I was younger."

"Must have been a lovely chil— wait, did you say _four_ just now?" Set quickly bounced back to Maza's previous statement.

Kale turned to her. "Hey, he's right. You said 'all four of us'."

"Yep! I found my partner too! Well… more like _they_ found me. I haven't seen him or her, but they definitely saw me, so it counts. He or she is… is…" She tried to locate the person, and pointed towards various directions, to no avail. "…That's weird. I can't find them. They must be outside my range already."

As though in response to that, Set suddenly started sniffing the air.

"I'm catching a whiff of a familiar scent… it's coming from the heart of the forest. Think it could be your friend, Sunlight?"

"Most likely." She suddenly frowned. "Poor thing… must be really shy. When I tried to speak with him or her, they just ran…"

Then her eyes widened, much to her friends' confusion.

"Actually, I think he or she just led me to you guys…" She stopped to think for a moment. "Maybe they want to be left alone for a bit."

Kale tilted his head, clearly still confused. "Well, that's going to be nice as far as avoiding the Grimm goes, but if you're partners already, they're going to have to show up at some point."

"Yeah… you're right." Right away, she perked up again. "Why don't we go pick your chess piece and let my partner come to us?"

"Sounds good to me." He looked at the other Faunus. "What do you say, little brother?"

He shrugged at this. "Sounds boring. Let's do it."

And with that line, they started heading toward the relics.

"I wonder who my partner is going to be!" Maza made her thoughts clear as she walked all the way toward the altar, right in between the two brothers. "Oh, I hope it's Ruby. I bet the four of us would get along so well!"

Set was quick to do the same. "Y'know, I actually wonder who we're gonna get hooked up to. Hope it's not a duty maniac. I don't think I'd be able to deal with that…"

After taking a moment to try and imagine what he expressed for a moment, he was suddenly interrupted by a funny thought.

"…Heh, 'duty'."

Maza chuckled for a moment, apparently getting the joke.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at Beacon Cliff, Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch were looking at their Scrolls intently.

"So far, so good." Glynda was looking through the list of people that had already finished the test. "Almost all of the applicants have managed to find a partner, and the teams are starting to get assembled, Professor."

"Good." Keeping his eyes fixated on his subject of interest, Ozpin took a sip from his mug. "What about those that have not finished the test? Have any of them been injured?"

"At the moment, they all seem to be alright." She replied without missing a beat, raising her view to look at him directly. "Even Jaune Arc is doing surprisingly well, despite some… setbacks." She brought her attention back to her Scroll. "He should consider himself lucky Miss Nikos managed to spot him in time."

"I see."

Ozpin finally turned his attention away from his own Scroll to look at her.

"Now, has anyone been left without a partner?" He asked, having picked up on Glynda's wording. "I recall you saying earlier that the last pair had been formed."

She switched the current feed on her device before showing it to him. "This is a… unique situation, Professor."

He paid close attention to what was unfolding in front of him, all the while she continued to speak.

"The two boys became partners after defeating a group of Grimm, but their companion…" She prompted the screen to zoom in on said person. "…Miss Reynard has not actually made eye contact with anyone besides them. She seems to think she has already found a partner of her own, but the only remaining candidate has some… interesting methods."

"Oh? And what method is this candidate using that is so unique?" Ozpin asked with mild intrigue.

In response, the video changed from the walking trio to the person in question. He had his hands together, and both of them could see he was perfectly still.

"A… blindfold, Professor. A scarf tied around his head. He's purposely covering his eyes."

After a few moments, he suddenly started to move, managing to find a hiding spot in order to avoid a group of people who were passing by.

Ozpin said nothing. He merely kept watching, with what seemed like great interest.

* * *

Eventually, Maza and the two brothers approached an area which, just as she said, presented the group with an assortment of chess pieces, only a few of which were missing.

"Guys! Look!" She pointed towards the chess pieces, excited as usual. "I told you they were chess pieces! And that I'd find them!"

She walked by the pieces, as though she was inspecting them, before stopping and turning towards her friends.

"So? Any catch your eye?"

"Woof. I didn't expect this." Set expressed dissatisfaction at the lack of chess pieces. "The others already nabbed most of them!"

Kale seemed equally upset. "We must've been the slowest ones out of the whole group."

"Or the ones that enjoyed the test the most!" Maza happily replied, trying to help the mood. "Maybe the others were in such a rush because there were Grimm on their tails and we just got it backwards."

"Uh…" Her human friend looked at her, clearly confused.

The wolf Faunus' face screamed of nothing but snark. "Yeah… I'm sure that's not the reason."

She merely smiled and then looked at the pieces.

"Aw, come on, guys. Don't feel bad. There's still a lot to choose from." She pointed at them. "Go ahead, take your pick."

Rather than argue about it anymore, the two brothers decided to examine which pieces were available to them.

"Well… there _is_ some variety, at least." Kale eventually spoke up. "Any picks in mind, little brother?"

Set looked at the pieces, sharply thinking about which may be a good pick.

 _Hmm, I wonder… which one draws my eye? Which one might mean something…?_

He then stood up straight, took a deep breath, and responded firmly.

"…Black knight."

At the mention of that, Kale's eyes immediately turned to the corresponding piece.

"Ah! Found it." He walked over and grabbed it.

As he headed back to where he was a moment ago, he noticed Maza shaking excitedly again.

"And with that, we've officially finished the first part of our test!" She laughed for a few seconds. "Oh, I wonder who else already finished it. Hey, do you think there'll be a celebratory party afterwards? If not, what do you say we go for muffins? My treat? I know a great bakery we can visit after this."

Watching as she went on, Kale let out a chuckle.

"I _really_ like her."

"I repeat, I keep thinking of pink cupcakes when I'm around her… not that that's a bad thing." Set answered his brother in whisper, before going a little louder for his cheery friend. "Hey, smiles! I'll take ya up on that offer!"

"Yay! Let's not waste any more time then!" She ran up to the two. "If we hurry up, maybe we could convince Professor Ozpin to come along too, and we can get him to buy the cupcakes for us!" She then started to walk back to the forest, still with a spring in her step. "Nah, okay, I'm just kidding. But it'd be nice to have him there!"

Kale decided to follow without anything else to say, just being pleased that they'd make it through without too much of a hassle.

Set, who remained behind, started to sniff the air again.

"Hmm… that scent again. And it's getting closer…"

Shortly after, though, Maza called out to him. He decided to ignore the scent, and just hurried toward the rest of the group.

* * *

 _Forget about it. It's all in the past now. Just keep your eyes on the prize._

After making sure the three individuals were far enough from the area, the young man with the blindfold scarf approached the area and stood still, paying close attention to his surroundings.

… _Good. Not a single soul for miles._

He walked toward each one of the altars, and he started to examine them very carefully with his hand, eventually stopping at one in particular. After making sure it was the one he wanted, he picked it up and started to caress it with his thumb.

 _There you are. Perfect._

Seemingly pleased with his prize, he put the piece in one of his pockets and promptly headed for the base of the mountain.

 _And I didn't see a single applicant. I'm sorry, Professor Ozpin, but it looks like I'm going to be this year's special case._

* * *

After a short trip, the blindfolded man managed to reach the top of the mountain, where Ozpin and Glynda were waiting. After taking a deep breath, he removed his scarf and tied it back around his neck, before looking at them and showing them the chess piece he collected.

"Here it is, just like you said." He handed the relic over to them, with a proud smile on his face. "Looks like I'm the last one to reach the finish line."

Professor Ozpin, seemingly unimpressed by what the young man had accomplished, gave a rather simple answer.

"It would appear to be so, yes."

Glynda's expression was equally devoid of any outward emotion. "Very well. Make your way to Beacon Tower. Professor Ozpin will address you in his office soon. You are dismissed."

"As you wish." He gave them a quick bow before leaving.

Once he was out of range, Glynda turned to Ozpin.

"What are we going to do, Professor? In all these years, no one has ever finished the test without making eye contact with another person. How are we going to pair him?"

He didn't give her an answer immediately, as she noticed that he seemed to be focused on something else. Once she turned her attention to it, she was surprised to find a group of students heading in their direction… the same group that she had brought to his attention a while ago.

They heard the female cry out. "Professor Ozpin!"

"Yo! We got somethin' for ya!" The young Faunus boy spoke to the professors next, with seemingly little regard for their position of authority.

After the three came to a stop, right in front of them, the taller applicant spoke to them while the others were catching their breath.

"We're really sorry about the delay. We ran into a really big pack of Creeps and a Death Stalker." Then he offered his hand. "But we've got the relic." He started breathing heavily as well.

As he opened it up, Ozpin was surprised to see the piece that the boy and his teammate had chosen, although he didn't show it outwardly.

"You have performed amazingly." His voice was much warmer than before, much to the surprise of the three teens. "I believe a moment of rest would suit you all. Go to the lobby. I shall head there myself shortly."

As the team walked away, Ozpin smiled lightly, something that Glynda was quick to notice.

"Professor Ozpin… is something the matter?"

He provided her with a simple response. "I believe we've found the solution to our… special case."

* * *

There we are. We've finally gotten past the complicated part. The test is over, and they all managed to survive it. There have been plenty of laughs, scares, action, and just about the strangest ways someone could've thought about when getting through a task like this.

Next time, we'll be following these guys back to the academy. What is Professor Ozpin thinking about? Well, if you've made it this far and want to know, just stay tuned for our next update.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	6. Chapter 6

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Well, guys, we've got an extra-long chapter on our hands this time. There's a lot we wanted to get done after the test, and it ended up being a bit longer than we first thought it was going to be, but hopefully, it's not going to be a slog to get through. Now that we've covered that, here goes something!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

Some time later, Set, Kale and Maza were at the lobby, waiting as instructed by Professor Ozpin.

"Well, guys… we made it." Kale let out a long sigh. "Whatever else happens, we're officially accepted."

Maza laughed at that. "I know! Talk about starting the lessons with a bang, right? Professor Ozpin could make a living organizing parties if he has ideas like this all the time."

Set, somewhat overwhelmed by the large crowd around him, spoke lightly. "Can someone pet me? I feel uneasy… again."

"You got it!" His friend immediately complied.

Taking their focus away from their group, the three were met by the sight of the other future students. All of them looked exhausted from the test, but they also looked fairly happy. There were a lot more of them than they were able to spot last night.

"Hey, guys, do you think you can spot our new teammate?" Maza asked, not forgetting that they were one team member short. "My Semblance doesn't really make me telepathic. It only gives me some vague details, and right now, we're surrounded by a lot of people. That's going to mess things up a little."

Kale started examining the crowd before them a bit more closely.

"Alright, we might have to look for someone in there who's not part of a group." He lightly bumped Set with his elbow. "See anything, little brother?"

"Can't say. Can't smell, either."

He found himself unable to perceive the scent of the person he detected at the forest. Whoever they were, he figured they might be the one.

"I'm just as limited as you are. All I'm hooking are a bunch of ripe armpits."

The three kept their eyes on the crowd for several moments, but there was no sign of anything.

"…Well, that's not good." Maza eventually broke the silence. "Looks like we'll have to find them the old-fashioned way, guys. Let's split up and see if we can spot someone who's on their own."

Before either one of the boys could answer, they were interrupted by a fourth voice.

"That would be a good idea."

Immediately turning to the source, they were once again met by Professor Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch.

"Yo. To what do we owe the honors?" Set asked, in an exceedingly casual manner.

Ozpin looked somewhat amused, whereas Glynda's stoic expression didn't change at all.

"Well, now that you've managed to survive your trip through the Emerald Forest, there is another matter that we need to discuss." The headmaster's voice remained the same as it did when they saw him earlier. "Follow me."

As the two adults began to walk away, the trio wasted no time in following.

"Say, do you guys like muffins, by any chance?"

* * *

The headmaster's office, right on top of Beacon Tower.

Somehow, the boy with the white scarf expected to end up here, but at the same time, he wasn't sure what could've prompted Glynda to ask him to come. What if it wasn't about the results of the test?

 _No… don't think like that. Stay calm. You made it in._

He put his hand on the glass window, staring right at his reflection as he did.

 _Focus. Just remember… you are a hunter. You do not feel fear. You…_ _ **do not**_ _…_ _ **feel fear!**_

He unconsciously began to add pressure to the window, which started to crack, when suddenly, the chime from the elevator brought him back to reality.

Right as he turned around, the shaft door opened, and he was greeted once again by the sight of Ozpin and Glynda.

"Professor Ozpin." The young man gave him a small bow, before turning to Glynda and doing the same thing. "Professor Goodwitch."

"No need for such formalities." Ozpin raised a hand as he spoke to the young man. "Now, please take a seat. There's something we must discuss."

As he complied, the two professors stepped out of the elevator, and he noticed that they had company with them.

The kind of company he would rather avoid.

 _Oh, no… not these people again…_

It was the Faunus girl and her two friends. The same ones that had given him nothing but grief and irritation so far. Of all the teens that had arrived at Beacon, why would he bring _them_ to his office?

"If I may ask, Professor, why did you bring more students here? I thought you wanted to speak with me in private." Despite his inner turmoil, the boy managed to stay calm and collected, merely raising an eyebrow in confusion as he spoke.

Before Ozpin could reply, however, he was interrupted.

"Wait…" It was the girl again. "…I thought he wanted to speak to _us_ in private."

"In reality, you are both correct." Ozpin remained completely calm. "I wanted to address something that concerns all four of you."

"Alright, wizard. I'm listening. I'm hopin' this will make for a story for the grandpups." The other Faunus looked a bit uneasy, in spite of his carefree response.

The young man was appalled at his peer's seeming lack of respect for the headmaster, but before he could snap at him, he was stopped by Glynda's voice.

"As you'll recall, we said that you would be monitored for the entirety of your test." She crossed her arms. "And we noticed that one of you had a… unique strategy in mind."

He nodded in response, already having an idea of where this was most likely headed.

"That's right, Professor. You set some conditions in place for this test, so I was curious about what would happen if these conditions weren't met by design."

The girl gasped, seemingly understanding what happened, and he could see her pointing at him. "You're the one that was hiding in the tree!"

"Without a doubt. You reek the same…" The Faunus boy, once again as casual as can be, confirmed what his friend said. "You could use a shower, big guy."

"Thanks. I will keep it in mind once I get my own room." He replied with a nod before turning his attention to Ozpin. "After all, that is the only way things can go from here, right, Professor? I didn't make eye contact with anyone. Therefore, I don't have a partner or a team."

The taller teen of the group seemed confused. "Wait, how did you do that? The Emerald Forest isn't big enough for you to completely miss everyone. There were a lot of applicants."

"That, Mr. Midnight, is what I was talking about." Glynda let her arms down and reached for her pocket. "It appears he decided to venture through the forest while blindfolded."

As she explained this, her Scroll played footage of the young man untying his scarf, wrapping it around his head and over his eyes, and going through the forest while willingly unable to use his eyes to guide himself.

"Blindfolded?!" He asked again, this time raising his voice. "What?!"

"But… Prof. O, isn't that… cheating?" The male Faunus was somewhat disconcerted. "I mean, I'll admit that was clever, but this chess rook just looped a hole big enough to swallow Beacon whole!"

The young man with the scarf shook his head. "Not true. The rules clearly stated that the first person you made eye contact with would become your partner. Using your Scroll to find each other? That would be cheating. However, there is no rule that says one can't just go around the forest with their eyes closed, or for that matter, covered."

"But… but I found you!" The girl tried to counter, saddened by what she heard. "We're supposed to be partners!"

"You _detected_ me, but did you actually _see_ me?"

That seemed to confuse her. "Well, no, but…"

"Exactly. You saw him." He pointed at the boy on her left. "Ergo, you are partners with him, not me."

"I'm gonna tail in right there. As much as I'd love to be Muffincake's partner, I already had a partner when she tackled me, and it's the tall dude with the military jacket standing tall next to me." Said boy seemed quite angry at how his friend was being treated. "Also, check your Ergos before angrily blowing nonsense, you blasted, stiff jerk!"

He shrugged in response.

"As true as that might be, I just proved myself capable of traveling through dangerous terrain alone. The rules of the test no longer apply to me." Then he turned to the girl. "But don't feel bad. Think of all the possibilities that come with you being three. Beacon can accept a new last-minute applicant and he or she could be your partner. Heck, Professor Goodwitch and all of you can do try outs and select him or her personally. Even better, they'd be happier and less 'jerky' than me. The way I see it, it's a win-win."

"But then you'll be all alone." The girl frowned. "It wouldn't be fair to you."

He responded quite harshly. "Just give it a rest, girl. Rules are rules. We can't just go around and bend them to our will."

"You mean like you did?" The boy in the jacket was just as harsh in his tone. "We have to stick to the rules, but because you're not us, it's alright to ignore them?"

He shook his head. "What I did was find a loophole. I didn't bend nor ignore any rules; I just… thought outside the box."

"You're also finding my last nerve, pal." The male Faunus was quite at odds with the young man. "I suggest you choose your next words wisely, or you'll be Crimson Fang's next sharpening tool."

He just sighed and shook his head. "I don't get it. Do you _want_ me to be a part of your team, even though you don't like me?"

"Look, I'm not a fan of the idea of us being in the same team. In fact, I hope and pray to the Maiden of the Blue Moon that we're not." The Faunus boy breathed heavily. "But you're trying to pass yourself off as some kind of special case, like you're superior to everyone else, _and_ you're upsetting my friend. All high and mighty, but no respect… _are we?_ " That last question was clearly intended as a mockery.

"Then it appears we are currently at an impasse. Every explanation and offer I give, you seem to respond to by refusing to open your mind to a new form of thinking. Professors, maybe you could help solve this?" He turned to the two adults. "I imagine this is the 'subject' you wanted to address."

"Indeed." Ozpin nodded in response. "First of all, I'd like to know… how did you manage to find your way around the forest with such a clear handicap?"

The man sighed and let his head drop down. "…If you must know, I just used my hearing."

"And as we all saw just a moment ago, you were able to retrieve a relic and bring it to us." Glynda interjected.

"That is correct."

"Care to elaborate? You're clearly not a Faunus, and yet, if what you say is true, then you just surpassed our best Faunus when it comes to hearing. I'd even dare to say that, if there were any records for hearing in the Faunus community, you've most likely broken them."

The Faunus girl suddenly shifted from sadness to impressed surprise. "Wow, can you really hear that well?"

The young man nodded in response.

"If I focus, my hearing far exceeds my eyesight." He closed his eyes and exhaled. "Professor Goodwitch just tightened her hold on her riding crop with her thumb and pinky. There is a fly standing on the wolf Faunus' left shoulder. Your temperature, based on your bodily sounds, is around 25°. There is a crack on the third window on the left side of this office. Your right foot —"

"Stop!" The girl shouted, seemingly unnerved at this. "We believe you."

"Young man, how exactly did you gain such an ability?" Glynda asked while trying to process what she had just witnessed.

For the first time, he cracked a smile as he looked at them.

"My teacher is a strong believer in equality when it comes to the battlefield. She is a Faunus, and the fact that I wasn't one didn't stop her from training me as one too. The results speak for themselves."

"They certainly do." Ozpin's reply brought the entire room's attention back to him. "And while it wasn't the most advisable course of action, I would like to congratulate you for completing the test in such a way."

"Thank you, Professor." His smile continued as he gave another bow. "Hearing that from you means a lot, and I bet my teacher would be particularly happy to hear it as well."

"I'm certain she would." The headmaster's tone remained calm. "Now, I believe you mentioned that you and Miss Reynard had… an encounter of sorts?"

As he said this, Glynda played the footage of their encounter.

The young man nodded. "I heard her… singing. I thought she might be in danger, so I rushed to her location."

"Awww, you were worried about me?" She asked, sincerely touched.

"I thought she was either a rookie, not familiar with the dangers of the place… or just a depressed girl with a death wish."

"I'll still take it as a sign that you care." The girl kept her smile in place.

The wolf Faunus shifted from frustration to surprise, followed by a loud snort.

"Well, all of a sudden I feel like takin' it all back. Looks like Titan's just a huge cuddly Ursa." He cackled. "You actually care!"

"I care enough to know that she will be safer under your protection." The man turned the comment around. "Too bad you don't share the sentiment."

As Glynda put her Scroll away, Ozpin continued.

"Did you run into anyone else?"

He shook his head. "Negative, Professor. Miss Reynard was the closest one, and she moved to a different location after I lured her toward these two."

"You can just call me Maza." Somehow, the girl's smile hadn't wavered in the slightest.

Glynda was next. "And as Mr. Prowl was keen to mention, he and his brother had made eye contact before you did this." She turned to the two boys. "Is that correct?"

"Yes, Professor Goodwitch." The taller one replied with a nod.

Ozpin spoke again. "Well, in light of this information, I'd say we can resolve this problem."

"And what do you propose, Professor?" The young man asked with mild intrigue.

The headmaster made his way to his desk.

"We can't rely on the rules that were established, so we'll have to account for your… unique strategy." He pulled his chair out and sat down. "And since Miss Reynard was the first person you were able to properly identify with your hearing…"

The young man raised an eyebrow. "You intend to pair us together based on the fact that we detected one another before anyone else?"

"Yay!" Maza tried to hug him.

However, he kept her at bay by placing one hand on her head, with her still attempting to reach him as he then turned his attention back to the two Professors.

"That is precisely what we intend to do."

This situation was exactly what he was hoping to prevent. His plan had been to avoid getting attached to a group of clueless peers that would ruin his hopes, and this girl most definitely fit the bill. She seemed unfocused, overly peppy and too touchy-feely for his liking. He would rather be teamed up with a Beowolf.

And he thought he had the perfect escape. Stepping forward, he walked up to the desk, with Maza running past, filled with momentum, resulting in her tackling the brothers down to the ground by accident.

"Professor, with all due respect, I don't agree with this. By that logic, that would mean—"

But he had to stop himself in his tracks when he realized something.

…The first person he identified was the Schnee girl.

 _Weiss Schnee…_

A few seconds passed before Ozpin finally broke the silence. "Yes?"

 _Teaming up with her? Over… my…_ _ **dead**_ _…_ _ **body!**_

Sighing in defeat, he looked back at those who were to be his teammates.

"Never mind. Looks like I will be teaming up with Miss Sugar Rush, the Snark Cub, and his little brother, the Camo Kid."

"That's me!" Maza pointed at herself.

The wolf cub was most definitely not amused. "Oh, joy… look at me wag my tail in ecstasy."

"…I'm a year older than you." The boy in the jacket seemed a little insulted.

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, quit your whining. This is what you asked for."

The young man turned to the Professor with one thought in his mind.

 _Well, as long as I'm named team leader, this should—_

"Then it's decided." As though in answer, Ozpin spoke again. "You four will be a team, and Mr. Prowl will be your leader."

… _Of course he is._

The mighty sigh he released in resignation came shortly before looking at his new team leader.

"My apologies, I meant to say… 'quit your whining, sir'."

The Faunus boy sighed too. Not only would he be required to lead the team, which he was hoping to avoid, but he'd also be under the obligation of getting along with the man with whom he had a heated argument mere moments ago.

"…Set." He replied. "Just call me Set."

Maza's eyes widened in realization. "Hey, speaking of, you haven't told us your name yet!"

"Our captain gave me the codename 'Titan'. Let's go with—"

"Young man…" Glynda's voice was quiet, but undeniably stern. "…give them your name."

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"This is not going to be easy." He turned to his teammates. "It's… Whirlwind. Wyatt Whirlwind."

Then he turned to the headmaster.

"Will that be all, Professor?"

Ozpin nodded. "That'll be all. Your team name will be given to you at the ceremony. For now, you all are excused."

"Thank you, Professor." He bowed to him and Glynda one last time before heading for the elevator. "If you'll excuse me… it appears I have a ceremony to go to."

Maza chased after her new teammate. "Hey! Wait for us!"

The two brothers soon followed, except nowhere near as fast.

Once the elevator doors were closed, Glynda turned to look at Ozpin. "I can't imagine this team getting along easily."

"Perhaps, but perhaps they might." He didn't look nearly as concerned as her. "We'll just have to wait and see."

She sighed before her eyes turned to the window that had been mentioned earlier. The crack looked like it cut a building right through the middle.

"Let's hope they do. I don't think I want to see how else that boy could 'think outside the box'."

* * *

The next few hours were pretty much just spent waiting.

As the four youths stood around the amphitheater, they noticed that a lot of the other future students were still a little disorganized, many pairs of partners sticking together while others had split up in favor of speaking to what they could only assume were friends or complete strangers.

For all their disagreements, it seemed as though they had all agreed to stand far away from the group.

"Hey, I think I see Ruby over there!" Maza suddenly spoke up.

Before any of the others could say anything, though, they noticed Professor Ozpin had made his way back in. In a matter of moments, the disorganized group of people started to get a little less chaotic. From the looks of things, they were being organized into teams of four, much like themselves.

"It's starting." Wyatt sighed, sounding awfully depressed.

As if in response, Ozpin turned in their direction and gestured for them to come closer.

"You jinxed it, Blizzard." Set scoffed at his teammate's words.

They did as the headmaster instructed, eventually standing among the others.

"Now that you've managed to organize yourselves into teams, there's just one last matter left to attend to." Most of the students seemed surprised at how different he seemed from when he gave his welcoming speech and the test rules. "We'll have an assembly and present you to your senior students. You can think of it as a proper welcome, if you wish."

"As you command, sir." Wyatt responded, taking what he heard as if it were a command… and bringing some additional attention to himself.

Suddenly, much like back in the locker room, everyone heard the speakers powering on around them, followed by the familiar voice of Glynda Goodwitch.

" _All students and teachers, please make your way to the amphitheater as soon as possible. We have an important announcement to make today._ "

After they went off again, Ozpin turned to the assembled teams. "All of you, please make your way to the left side of the stage."

As they did what they were asked to do, Wyatt turned his attention to Set.

"Be on your best behavior, sir. You wouldn't want to give the higher-ups a faulty first impression, would you?"

"Again, it's Set." As expected, he responded lightly. "Also… chill, Hurricane. It'll be a breeze."

He just kept quiet and did as he was instructed.

* * *

Within a few minutes, the room was full of new faces that none of them had seen before. Just as Ozpin said, loads and loads of older students were filling up the room, some of them clad in uniforms while others wore regular clothes, as well as a few teachers, judging by their looks.

"Hello. Thank you for joining us." Right on cue, Ozpin started speaking again. "Today, just like so many other times, we're ready to present the newest additions to our student body." The auditorium screen suddenly came on. "And as always, it's my job to introduce every one of them."

Immediately after, a group of four girls started making their way over to where he was standing, and the screen showed their profiles accordingly.

One of them had long white hair, purple eyes, and wore what seemed like a combat skirt. The next one had short black hair, green eyes, and an ammo belt wrapped around her chest, as well as black shorts and sneakers. Right behind her was another one, with red hair tied into a short ponytail and matching red eyes, as well as some armor all over her body. The last one had gray hair styled into a bowl cut, brown eyes, a gray shirt, arm bracers, high heeled boots, and two gun holsters on the sides of her belt.

"Jyn Delaney, Bai Ying, Garnet Flynn and Rayna Gray." As the four came to a stop in front of Ozpin, he directly addressed them. "The four of you retrieved the white pawn pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team BRGD, led by…" He made a brief pause. "…Bai Ying."

The four of them celebrated with an exchange of back pats, high fives and shoulder punches.

Set was quick to make an observation. "I gotta admit… that Ying girl is mad attractive. No woofs."

For a moment, Maza looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a sneaky grin, before her attention was diverted by the next group. Just like before, the auditorium screen started to show their profiles.

The first was a man with somewhat dark cyan eyes and dark burgundy hair, who was wearing a suit of armor. Next up was a feline-looking Faunus girl with gray eyes, yellowish-green hair, and a ripped, jet-black bodysuit. She was followed by a young girl with dark blonde hair and lime green eyes, who was wearing a silver blue combat dress. The last one was a tall lady with rainbow-colored hair, light gray eyes, a white dress shirt, a skirt that looked like it was made out of bullet rounds, and combat boots.

"Robin Alabaster, Nyanza Feldgrau, Lyra Gold and Ceil Gainsboro." Like their predecessors, the four stood in front of Professor Ozpin, seemingly both nervous and excited. "The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRLN, led by… Ceil Gainsboro."

Much like the previous team, they congratulated each other for a moment.

Set's eyes widened at the sight of the team leader. "Well… that's colorful."

"Wow… surprising." Maza watched them curiously. "Robin is the only guy in that group. First team I've ever seen that goes that way."

Kale shrugged at this. "You know, I actually think that makes things interesting. I mean, look at us. We're the exact opposite." He looked fairly excited. "Who knows what that might mean for us?"

"May I remind you that you could've had any other type of teammate if you had just kicked me out of the team and gone with my offer to have tryouts?" Wyatt retorted. "You could've had the option of making your team _exactly_ the way you wanted it to be. Two men and two women, three Faunus and one human, two humans and two Faunus, gunners or swordsmen… you could've had the opportunity of a lifetime."

Maza smiled at him, much to his irritation. "We'd never do that. We understand if you're shy and you need some time."

 _What is with this girl…?_

He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down.

"I'm not shy. I simply wanted to see what would happen if I didn't see anyone during the test." He then looked straight at his teammates. "Really, were none of you even the slightest bit interested to see who you could've chosen to be your fourth teammate?"

"Nope!" Maza answered immediately, with her upbeat attitude and gleeful smile completely undisturbed.

Set whispered to his brother. "Life of the party, this guy, huh?"

"Seriously, what's his problem?" Kale was rubbing one of his temples.

Before anything else could be said, the group saw the most recent team walking off the stage, and they promptly decided that they would be next.

"Set Prowl, Kale Midnight, Maza Reynard and Wyatt Whirlwind." The team approached the headmaster, eagerly awaiting his words regarding their team despite their prior knowledge of the results. "The four of you retrieved the black knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as…"

This was it. The moment they were expecting the most. They would finally know their assigned team name.

"…Team SMWK, led by…" Ozpin made a short pause, followed by a brief smile. "…Set Prowl."

He then approached the team and spoke to them in a low tone of voice.

"I trust you will not disappoint." He smiled at them before stepping back.

As the group began to get off the stage, Wyatt immediately returned to his seat.

"You heard the headmaster, sir. Better make sure we don't disappoint."

Set could only roll his eyes in frustration, while Kale seemed gleefully ignorant to his teammate's wisecracks.

Maza hugged her two friends, jumping up and down as she did.

"We did it, guys! We are officially a team for the next four years!" Clearly, she could not contain her excitement. "This is the birth of Team SMWK! We are going to be awesome! I just know it!"

Despite his obvious annoyance at the whole situation, Wyatt had to admit something to himself.

 _Team SMWK… that's… actually a good name._

As they continued to celebrate, the other newly formed teams began to approach them, looking to congratulate them. The four teens praised their new classmates just as much before turning their attention back to the stage, ready to see what the rest of the teams would be like.

* * *

Here we go. We've got an official team now, and we also had a couple of others thrown in, because hey, it's not just our ragtag bunch of misfits who made it into Beacon. After all, there were lots of people in that airship, and it's not like they evaporated into thin air. Speaking of, we have a long list to get through this time…

\- Wyatt Whirlwind: _Wyatt_ is pronounced much like "white".  
\- Jyn Delaney: _Delaney_ is an Irish surname derived from the Gaelic _Ó Dubhshláine_ , with _Dubh_ in particular meaning "black".  
\- Bai Ying: _Bai_ is a Chinese unisex name that can mean "pure" and "white".  
\- Garnet Flynn: _Garnet_ is a dark red gemstone.  
\- Rayna Gray: _Gray_ is a color.  
\- BRGD: Pronounced "burgundy", just like the color.  
\- Robin Alabaster: _Robin_ is meant to allude to a shade of cyan called "Robin egg blue".  
\- Nyanza Feldgrau: _Feldgrau_ is a greenish-gray color.  
\- Lyra Gold: _Gold_ is a shade of yellow.  
\- Ceil Gainsboro: _Gainsboro_ is a pale tone of gray.  
\- CRLN: Pronounced "cerulean", just like the color.  
\- SMWK: Pronounced "smoke", which alludes to different shades of black and gray.

Well, now that we're done here, whatever happens from this point on will come at its own pace. What kind of shenanigans can we expect these guys to get into? Only time will tell. We really hope this has been a fun ride so far, and we also hope that you'll stick around.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	7. Chapter 7

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Okay, we're done with the opening chapters. It's time to open the floodgates and let the imagination fly in full now. This is where we start telling more original stories and taking full advantage of the environment that we're currently playing with, and we really hope to impress with this. Let's get right to it!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

 _Later that day_ _…_

Once Professor Ozpin finally finished announcing the new teams, then came the next step: each of them had to be directed to their new room.

As the newly christened Team SMWK made their way to their assigned room, each of them reacted in their own way.

Maza was shaking with excitement. "Where do you think we'll be staying, guys? Oh! You think we'll get bunk beds or regular beds?"

"Dibs on the hammock!" Set wasted no time on calling ownership on one of the mementos he brought from his hometown: a knitted hammock.

Kale looked at him with what seemed like amazement. "You brought that all the way here?"

"Of course I did! How else am I supposed to have a good night's sleep? Snooze on the floor like a pup?"

That got Maza to grin. "Aww, that'd be so cute!"

"Tell me you are joking." Wyatt quickly voiced his thoughts. "You _are_ aware that we're sleeping in a room, and not on the sand during a hunt in the beach, right?"

Kale raised an eyebrow at him. "You've never been to Vacuo, have you?"

"No, but I don't see how that's relevant to the conversation."

"Trust me. Spend enough time there, you'll learn that the floor's a bed only for the weak." Set elaborated. "Plus, I'd like to avoid fleas."

Wyatt sighed and looked forward.

 _I can work with this_ _…_ _I can work with this_ _…_

"So, how close are we?" Maza moved over to Kale's side.

In turn, he looked at the doors carefully. "If I got the directions right, we should be arriving right about…" He stopped and turned to one in particular. "…now."

Wyatt opened the door and looked inside.

"Hmm… a bit big, but I think we can make it work. We each take one wall, Set can take the one looking at the window, and we each get 25% of—"

Conversely, Maza stepped in almost immediately. "We've gotta make room for the hammock!"

Before he could even argue with her, though, she turned around.

"Oh, sorry. You were just about to say something, weren't you?"

He just clenched his fist and silently walked towards one of the beds.

"…Nothing. Don't worry." As he sat on it, he proceeded to lay on one of its adjacent walls. "Let's just adjust to the room as you want."

The Faunus girl's expression immediately changed from concerned to happy. "Okay."

"Geez, chill, Stretch. Not everything needs to be by the book." Set was the next one, yet again speaking as though he had not one care in the world.

Wyatt could only stare at him, still unable to comprehend why Ozpin would make him the leader.

… _I can still work with this. I still can._

He took a moment to calm himself down before speaking again.

"You're right, sir. I suppose I'm not totally used to a new chain of command." He addressed him in a more relaxed fashion. "I will have everything under control once we start our training session for the upcoming semester."

Maza tilted her head to the side. "Uhh… the what?"

"You know, the training session. The schedule for our work out that our leader has in store for us. Oh! That reminds me…" Wyatt grabbed his backpack and pulled out a rather thick folder filled to the brim with papers, right before standing up and dropping it on top of Set's stomach. "Here you go, sir."

Kale raised an eyebrow. "What is that?"

"My training schedule, ideas, and inventory of Dust for my weapons. You will see that everything is up to date." Wyatt smiled proudly. "I know you might have some ideas for our team's development, but I believe this should help us improve in no time."

Maza blinked a couple of times, before leaning towards Kale to whisper into his ear. "He does know that Beacon isn't a military school… right?"

"Hey, Breeze. Lemme just say I have _no_ idea what you're talking' about." Set immediately snarked at him. "Mind translating for us civilians?"

"What do you mean, 'civilian'? Aren't you supposed to be a Huntsman? This is what being a Huntsman is about: putting your mind and body to the limit in order to find ways to improve. Since we are a team now, we need to learn how to work as a unit." Wyatt put both hands behind his back. "Learn, find our greatest strengths and weaknesses to protect each other… what better way to achieve that, and ensure we are not eaten alive by Grimm, than daily training?" He turned to his team leader. "So, at what time do we start tomorrow, sir? How about 5 AM sharp? Or do you prefer a minute right after midnight?"

"Oh, my goodness… he wants to kill us." Maza said, starting to panic.

Set groaned at this display.

"Listen here, Private Cyclone. We are _not_ soldiers. We literally _just_ got here. Tomorrow, we will dedicate our time to resting, setting up, and growing accustomed to the fact that we will be away from home for quite some time."

He then grabbed the rather heavy folder and threw it away carelessly, with it landing on a night stand… in a rather disorderly manner.

"Also, _that_ is what a night stand looks like." Then he pointed at his chest. " _This_ is my stomach, and it's good for two things: processing food, and belly rubs. Are we clear?"

Wyatt gave him an angry look. "…I apologize for my insubordination, but to be clear, are you really willing to risk the lives of your unit just because you need time to 'settle down'? That is suicide… _sir_." His words were full of disdain. "The creatures of Grimm don't think, they don't rest, and, most importantly… they don't stop. If we don't do the same and keep training, they will eventually overpower us. We need to plan while we still can. We need to—"

"What we _need_ is to function as a unit, as you so eloquently put it." Kale interrupted him. "And honestly, with the way you guys are bickering, we'll be dead in a month even if we train every day."

"Yeah, come on, guys." Maza put herself in between Wyatt and Set. "We're all in this together. Can we all get along, please?"

Wyatt stared back at Maza's pleading eyes before grumbling and walking away.

"Whatever. Whenever you're ready to talk about how to train, look for me. In the meantime, if anyone needs me, I will be at the gym." He left the room, slamming the door behind him.

Maza stared at the door for a couple of seconds before looking at her friends.

"Does Beacon even have a gym?"

Set scoffed. "He can live there for all I care." He turned towards the window. "If he thinks pushing your body to its breaking point is the way to go, he'll end up with more than a broken eye and a black nose." Suddenly, his eyes widened. "Wait…"

Surprisingly, Kale and Maza made the same comment in response. "I-I think you mean—"

"I know…" He hit his face with his open palm.

Maza then looked at Kale. "What do we do now?"

He just sighed. "We should probably give him a moment to simmer down." Then he sat down on one of the beds. "I don't think we're going to get through to him like this."

"I hope he's okay." She quickly followed suit. "Wyatt was a teensy bit extreme, but… he was only looking out for us, right? Maybe he's just not used to working with a team. Maybe… maybe he was only trying to find a way to understand it."

"Yeah… maybe."

She then looked at the folder for a moment before turning to Set. "So… what are you going to do with that?"

Set sighed heavily, turned his head towards the folder, and rolled his eyes up.

"I'll take a look at it."

A big smile was drawn on her face.

"Thank you… boss." She giggled for a moment. "You know, you're probably going to hate me for this, but he _did_ bring up a good point." It took her less than a second to realize what she said. "Oh, n-not the training thing. I mean, about our strengths and weaknesses. Why don't we talk about them? It could be a good way to get to know each other even more!"

"Sounds like a plan to me." Kale replied with a nod.

Pleased with his answer, she turned to his brother.

"What about you? What do you think, boss?"

"Ehh… alright, sure." Set's reply was very throwaway; he was quite focused on the contents of the folder that Wyatt had left for him to skim through.

"Awesome! So, who wants to start?" Maza asked, alternating her attention between the two brothers.

Kale raised his hand. "Uh, actually… wouldn't it be better if it was all four of us here?"

Meanwhile, Set did naught but sink into his own thoughts.

… _Amazing. All of this. I mean, I would **never** have my team wake up at 5 AM to run circles around Beacon. That's just nuts. But… most of this… is actually brilliant. So filled with determination. Passion. Thought… Maybe… maybe he really **is** doing more than merely turning us into soldiers… Maybe I should—_

"…Boss?" Maza's voice caught his attention, as she waved her hand in front of his face. "Are you there?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah…" He looked down at the page he was at for a moment before closing the folder. "Anyway, this is boringly long. I think I've read enough for one day. Let's go fetch Sandstorm."

Maza smiled and nodded. "You're the boss, boss!"

"Alright, little brother. You're in charge." Kale followed shortly after.

* * *

At that time, Wyatt walked outside the main Beacon building, approaching what could be considered a gymnasium.

"Hello?" He asked out loud while entering the building, inspecting it closely as he walked in. "Is this the gymnasium? Sorry for intruding, but I'm a bit lost, and a second-year student told me that this is the place where anyone can get some training."

It wasn't long before he spotted someone, who had turned to look at him right after he finished talking.

It was one of the members of a group that Professor Ozpin had christened as Team RWBY. A reasonably tall, blonde girl with purple eyes. He remembered her name clearly: Yang Xiao Long.

"Hel-looo~" She waved at him, her tone friendly and carefree.

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at that. "Miss Xiao Long…"

All of a sudden, his eyes widened, followed by him taking a second look around the building.

"Is this the women's gymnasium? Forgive me for the confusion. There wasn't a clear sign, and I—"

She interrupted him right there. "Nah, pretty sure the gym isn't divided by genders. Can you imagine how awkward that would be? People would keep crashing the wrong place… although it _would_ be kinda funny, now that I think of it." She came across as quite perky and friendly. "Also, you can just call me Yang. Using my last name makes me feel like an old lady. I don't look like one, do I?"

"That depends on what you define as 'old'." He did not skip a beat, even as he walked besides her and started to check the equipment. "Old enough to drink, old enough to hold a weapon, old enough to marry… there are many ways to interpret that. Wouldn't you agree?"

Yang merely looked at him, clearly puzzled by the response.

"You must be the life of every party, huh?" Even so, she still gave him a snarky smile.

"Negative." Wyatt walked towards a punching bag and began to punch it repeatedly, missing the gesture. "Don't pay any attention to me, miss. I will just be here training in silence."

Yang simply raised an eyebrow at this, quickly bringing her attention back to the sandbag she was using to train. Before throwing another punch at it, however, she chuckled.

"Hey, Smiley! How about training with me?" She turned to Wyatt once more.

Wyatt stopped and looked at her for a moment before going back to his punching bag.

"No, thank you. Nothing personal, but, you see, this…" He stopped and pointed at the bag. "…is safer than a fight against you."

Yang smiled confidently. "Don't tell me you're afraid of fighting a girl!"

"No, I'm afraid of sending a foolish girl to the hospital." He stopped and sighed before looking at his hands. "That is the curse of power."

She turned to her sandbag.

"Alllllrighty, scaredy cat. I'll just tell everyone that the big guy from Team SMWK was too scared to get beat by a girl." It was pretty clear that she wasn't being serious. "That should be funny. Everyone's reactions will be all like 'ooh', 'oh', 'no my gosh'… it's gonna be priceless!" As she finished talking, she purposely blew it off with one punch.

Wyatt took a deep breath.

 _Let it pass, Wyatt. She doesn't know… she is just another foolish girl. Nothing good will come if you knock her out. Just… just let her…_

Completely immersed in his thoughts, it took him a moment to notice that, much like Yang had done, he had sent the punching bag flying with a single punch.

"Miss Xiao Long…" He stared at it for a few seconds before turning to her again. "…why do you want to fight me so badly?"

She shrugged in response. "Well, why not?"

"Because seeking a fight blindly, with a perfect stranger no less, is not always a good idea. You know nothing about me, and I know nothing about you." He walked towards what looked like a stage. "…I'll give you three minutes. If you are still on your feet after that, please throw the match. Don't let your pride speak for you."

She slammed her fist into her other hand, with a cocky look on her face. "That's two more than I'm gonna need, buddy. If _you_ are still standing after that, feel free to give up before you get hurt."

Wyatt facepalmed at her words.

"It's like the word 'discipline' is taboo in this school." He shook his head before looking at her again. "Alright, Miss Xiao Long, courtesy demands that I let you throw the first punch, so go ahead." He extended his arms in preparation. "Guts, face, legs, side… just pick one. We will take that as the starting point of the match."

She stretched her arms for a moment. "If you say so. Just watch out for my hair when it gets serious, okay?"

She readied herself, took a fighting stance, jumped forward, and shot at the floor, flipping over Wyatt, and landing behind him. Instead of throwing a punch, though, she tapped him on the shoulder.

"You know, leaving your back open isn't very smart."

Wyatt stayed quiet and sweep kicked Yang's legs, making her lose her balance and fall, before jumping backwards to create distance between them.

"Tell me this is not how you intend to fight during the entire match."

That got a smile out of Yang.

"Not bad. This might just be fun." She got up and readied herself once more. "Make this interesting, big guy!"

"I will take that as a 'yes'." He was clearly very annoyed.

Wyatt then dashed forward to her, with his fist at the ready for a frontal assault. Yang prepared herself to receive it, but when he got close enough, he took a short step back, and let her throw a punch at him before side stepping and lightly pushing her to the side.

"I will give you this: that punch just back there was powerful indeed. I'm honestly impressed. But there is a difference between fishing and taking." He grabbed her by the shoulders and applied pressure in an attempt to bring her to her knees. "Can you really take it?"

Yang kept her face down for a moment, but much to his shock, she didn't even budge an inch.

"I dunno. Can you?" She looked up to him, with a broad, spirited smile on her face, right before uppercutting him and forcing him back a few feet. "Still scared you'll hurt me?"

Wyatt took a moment to recover from the surprise before shaking his head and then staring at her.

"Are you…?" He looked at her quizzically. "No… you could not be pretending. You… really took that as it was nothing…" He closed his eyes and clenched his fist. "…Who trained you?"

She smirked, with a determined look on her face. She then slid her right foot back a bit, and shot behind her, leaping towards Wyatt who immediately raised his guard and dashed again, this time intending to land a proper punch.

* * *

On the outside, Set, Kale, and Maza were searching for their remaining teammate.

"Wyatt! Where are you?" Maza shouted as they walked through the hallways of the school.

The ground shook, and they heard a rumbling coming from not too far away.

"Wh-Wh-What the heck was that?" Kale started looking all around in different directions.

Maza did the same thing. "Something went all, like, brrrrrrrrrrm!"

"Does anyone else smell Dust?" Set sniffed the air. "…And _smoke_?!"

The rumbling grew larger and more consecutive. So much so, in fact, that they were able to pinpoint a direction to follow.

"Guys, I think I found Wyatt…" Maza's concern was not only clear, but shared by her teammates.

* * *

"What are you? Some kind of monster?"

Wyatt and Yang were currently in the middle of a clash, their fists having collided against each other with enough strength to cause shockwaves.

"Nah, not even close." She winked at him. "Just think of me as the toughest girl you're ever gonna meet in your entire life."

Wyatt was taken aback by that for a moment, but he quickly snapped out of it.

"Don't make me laugh. I _know_ tough, and you are wet bread compared to—"

Before he could finish that, he noticed several students had entered the room. Some of them had already taken a seat on a nearby bench, while others were standing up, but it was clear that they had all come for the same reason.

"We are attracting an audience." Reacting quickly, he headbutted Yang, which pushed her far away enough that he was able to get his guard up again. "We need to end this now."

Much to his shock, she chuckled at that.

"What's the matter, Mr. Big 'n' Serious? Are we shy?" She looked at him for a moment. "Nah, you don't look the type."

He grunted and clenched his fist.

"Fine! You want to soil your image so much?! Wish granted!"

He dashed forward and hit her with a powerful uppercut before jumping after her. Immediately after reaching the ceiling, he propelled himself back down, reaching out and grabbing a hold of Yang's head. The two hit the ground, creating a crater and lifting a cloud of dust, from which Wyatt stepped out a couple of seconds later, sighing and looking down.

"Three minutes…" He turned away from her, ready to leave. "I warned you."

Before he could, though, he heard some rubble dropping on the floor.

"That was pretty awesome! I wasn't expecting—"

Yang's voice stopped suddenly, and as he turned back around, Wyatt spotted a golden lock of hair falling in front of her.

"…You…"

Her eyes turned to an intense red color, much to his shock, and he noticed that she had suddenly started looking at him much more seriously. On top of that, even though he could tell it was only her hair that was doing it, it was as though her entire body was surrounded by fire out of nowhere.

"…Now it's _personal_!"

He blinked a few times in disbelief. "How can you—"

He had no chance to finish his inquiry, as she punched him in the face at top speed, making him fly a couple of feet away.

"What?!" He barely had any time to process the fury of her first strike, as she quickly went for the offensive again.

The audience soon went wild at her performance, chanting her name.

"Please, stop!" Wyatt was trying his best to block her attacks. "I can't keep this up for much longer. Step down while you still can!"

However, it was as though he was speaking to thin air, as she seemed to not have heard him.

Reacting as quickly as he could, he threw a punch at her that clashed with her own, having mustered just barely enough strength to stop her in her tracks. This was followed by a blindingly rapid clash of perfectly matching punches, and soon, both were lost in the moment, blinded by adrenaline.

Only one thought was going through both of their heads at that point: bringing the other down.

Finally, they both put every single bit of their strength into one final strike. The collision of their fists was so intense that it created a powerful shock wave, which sent both of them flying backwards and right into the walls, and in turn, these two impacts were so strong that the building practically broke in two. Before either one of them could even process what had just happened, the whole gym had been reduced to nothing more than a gigantic pile of rubble.

This didn't stop them, however, as they each managed to dig their way out and began to stare each other down…

…but Yang stopped when she noticed something.

Having reached the gym right before it was completely wrecked by their fight, all the remaining members of Teams RWBY and SMWK stood before them, most of them completely frozen with shock at what had just transpired.

"Yang?" Surprisingly, Ruby Rose only seemed mildly confused.

Conversely, Wyatt just marched towards Yang, seemingly ignorant of his surroundings at this point.

"Enough! I'm done playing safe!" He raised his voice, which got her attention again. "I wanted to avoid killing anyone…"

He clenched his fists and then raised them up, like he wanted her to directly focus on them.

"Even a monkey can hold a gun, and a sword is nothing but a glorified stick, but this… this is the nerve. This is us. This is what we really are!"

As if on cue, he deployed his weapons, and Yang could see it in his eyes that he was ready to continue.

"Now, face the blizzard!"

As Wyatt slowly brought his hands together, and the two drills began to spin. One of them quickly coated itself with ice, while the other one stayed the same. The moment they touched each other, the two actions led to the ice being crushed just as quickly as it was generated, followed by it being swept up into the air. In a matter of moments, the entire area was covered by so much powdered ice that it was like being in the middle of a thick blizzard, blocking all visibility.

" _Welcome to my world!_ " Despite this, his voice could still be heard clearly.

Yang was taken aback, but soon enough, she composed herself and started shooting at the air.

" _That's right, keep shooting. Tell me exactly where you are!_ "

Without any further warning, he started to attack Yang from all directions, each hit carrying more force than the last one.

"Tell your friend to stop!" Ruby immediately turned to the three other members of Team SMWK. "He doesn't know what he's doing!"

Set nodded before focusing his attention on the heavy blizzard.

 _He wanted a leader? Well, he's about to get what he wanted in the first place, tenfold._

He sniffed the air a few times, eventually opening his eyes and looking at a particular spot. After taking a fighting stance, he fired Moon Sherbet, but interrupted the chain before it flew out of the device, thus creating pressure.

Most of them were too distracted to pay attention to him, but Kale immediately recognized it as the same maneuver he had pulled back home with the training dummy.

"Kale!" Set quickly turned to his brother.

The older boy responded just as quickly. "Sky Fang?"

"Sky Fang."

Kale nodded. "Got it!"

That got Maza's attention, and she looked at the two again just in time to see Kale disappearing from view the second he jumped into Set's shadow.

"Wh-What just happened?" Her eyes went wide from the surprise.

The fight went on for a few more seconds, still hidden from view, before she noticed a large object was closing in on their location at high speed… and she instantly recognized it.

"Kale?!"

Yes, the boy was flying at them like a bullet, aiming directly for his brother.

Right on cue, Set jumped up slightly. Kale did a flip in midair, switching his position so that when the two collided, the Faunus boy's feet landed right beneath his own, and using all the speed and thrust that he had built up, he stretched his legs out. Kale managed to land on his feet, while Set was catapulted right in the direction that he had been staring at before, flying into the scene at about the same speed his brother had come in before, like a knife piercing the sky.

And the second he saw Wyatt, he instantly got angry.

He pulled Moon Sherbet back into its socket less than a second before firing it again, the speed of the attack being higher than usual due to the pressure he had created.

The chain impacted one of Wyatt's drills with such strength and speed that it caused the weapon to break almost immediately upon impact. This was quickly followed up by a punch aimed straight for Wyatt's face, which connected before the white-haired boy could even process what had happened with his drill.

Right as Set landed, the blizzard began to fade, and he immediately turned his sights to Wyatt, who was doing his best to recover from the impact.

Before he could even think of returning the favor, Wyatt was surprised by the sheer level of what seemed like… _anger_ in his team leader's eyes.

"Very smart, you prick! Look at all you've done!" Likewise, his voice left little to the imagination. "Break the gym? Nearly freeze another student? Not to mention the other hurt students!" He pointed at each of those things as he named them. "Look to your right! Do you think pulling them from under the rubble is _our_ job?! Geez!"

Even his teammates, as well as the members of Team RWBY that were with them, were taken aback by his outburst.

"You keep saying I'm irresponsible and immature? Well, I'm not the one who caused more trouble than he's worth, all out of…" He stopped for a moment, as if trying to find the right words. "…heck, I don't even know _what_ , but, from the constant rumbling, I can only imagine!"

Wyatt was shocked at this. For the first time, Set was addressing him as he thought a team leader should, even turning his weapon on him for what had happened.

"What do you have to say for yourself, Whirlwind?!"

While that was going on, Maza turned to Ruby.

"Please excuse our teammate. We had an argument back in our dorm room, and he was pretty angry."

Ruby shook her head before doing the same. "That's not the real problem right now. Your friend is in danger!"

"Uhh… what?" The blue-haired girl tilted her head to the side.

Ruby then focused on where the fight had been taking place. "Yang's Semblance allows her to absorb any type of physical attack, and then counterattack with even more power. She could've killed him by accident! Actually, she could very well do it now!"

"What?!" Maza's eyes widened as she brought her attention back to the dissipating ice cloud as well.

Before they could even think of it, Yang's silhouette quickly flew out of it, heading straight for Wyatt's location.

"Get down!"

Reacting quickly, Wyatt pushed Set away before Yang could hit them both. While he was able to save his teammate from the impact, he couldn't stop her attack, which sent him flying right into a nearby wall.

Yang wasted no time in rushing towards him, and as she attacked him again, he managed to match blows with her once again, sending out a number of shockwaves that dispersed the wind.

Ruby was beyond shocked at this display. "Is… is he really _keeping up with Yang_?"

"Uh, heheheh… it looks that way." Maza was just as embarrassed as she was confused.

The clash continued for a while, when suddenly, Yang did a split and tried to hit Wyatt in the groin, resulting in him retracting and her backing away.

"What's the matter?" Wyatt smirked and grabbed her shoulder, before pressing his arm against her neck and pinning her against the wall. "Never heard the phrase 'balls of steel' before?"

Surprisingly, she returned the gesture with a smirk of her own.

"Wasn't that supposed to be an expression?" As she said this, her eyes finally returned to their normal purple color. "By the way, wordplay is kinda _my_ thing, but still, nice one."

Wyatt looked like he wanted to say something, but before he could, he suddenly collapsed into the floor, the exhaustion caused by the fight finally getting to him. Yang quickly followed suit, since it meant she was no longer being pinned against the wall.

"Heh… thanks. You… are pretty good too." It was only after she hit the floor that he managed to find the right words.

The two laughed in absolute joy for a moment before turning to their teammates, who were staring at them with varying degrees of confusion and irritation.

"Before anyone says anything, I have to say this…" Somehow, Wyatt still had enough energy to wipe the rubble off of himself. "Miss Xiao Long didn't do anything. If you need to punish anyone, then I take full responsibility."

In response, Weiss turned to his teammates. "Is he serious?"

"I… I-I don't know." Kale replied with a shrug, equally as confused as her.

Wyatt's response was simple.

"Miss Xiao Long earned my respect. It's only fair that I take the bullet for her. You didn't exactly want me in your team, so you could say this is your way of getting rid of me." He finally stood back up, looking at Yang as he did. "Consider it my way of _showing_ respect, Miss Xiao Long."

Set sighed heavily.

"…Nah. No need." He walked up to Wyatt. "I'll talk to Professor Goodwitch and tell her it was a training accident. After all, the schedule you left on my stomach earlier _did_ say that we're supposed to be training right now."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Prowl." The group heard a voice from behind them.

Both teams turned around, to find Glynda approaching. Her actions and response were, as usual, very stoic.

"Professor, there is no need for them all to get punished." Wyatt immediately addressed her. "I did all of that. Just punish—"

"I am well aware, Mr. Whirlwind." She cut him off. "You and Miss Xiao Long are to go to Professor Ozpin's office. Immediately."

Allowing them no chance to respond, she turned and walked away.

"…Woof."

* * *

Well… yeah. That really just happened. This is one that's been on the cards since the early stages of planning, and now, it finally gets to appear right here on the site. Lots of work and coordination involved there, and _definitely_ a concerted effort to make sure this could still happen without betraying the essence of the characters. Here's hoping you feel it was worth it.

It's time for the two brawlers to meet up with Professor Ozpin once more. How's that going to go after what just transpired? Well, if you've made it this far and want to know, just move over to the next chapter and read away. We have a double feature this time, and we hope you like it.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	8. Chapter 8

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Yep, today's update is a double feature. Since this was all actually completed in just a couple group sittings, we figured it'd make sense to post them up at the same time instead of working on them one at a time. Now that we've covered that, let's keep the ball rolling!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

It wasn't long before Wyatt and Yang found themselves back at the main Beacon building.

 _I've spent more time in this elevator than actually doing what I came to do…_

And already one of them was tired.

Wyatt sighed, having given up on trying to fix his damaged drill, before looking at Yang with a raised eyebrow. "We are about to face the Beacon headmaster and try to find a plausible reason why we shouldn't be expelled. Why are you still smiling?"

"Ah, don't be so stiff, ya big scaredy cat. Professor Ozpin's pretty cool. I don't think he'll be _that_ harsh." Yang smiled at him, clearly very carefree. "He wasn't when my baby sister chased after a very charismatic Dust thief. We'll be fine."

Wyatt kept quiet for a moment.

"Excuse me, did you say that your sister stopped a thief?" He finally spoke again after realizing that. "Did she have something to do with the news report from yesterday about stolen Dust?"

She gave him the finger guns in response. "Bingo!"

"Isn't that illegal? I think it even has a name… 'vigilantism'."

She put her hands down. "I have a different name for it: awesome."

"I… oh, forget it. Arguing with you is completely pointless."

The room turned quiet for a moment.

"So… you have a super strong Semblance too, eh?" Wyatt eventually found the will to talk to her again, having trouble coping with the tension.

Yang wiped some dust off of her shoulder. "Hey, you saw it. You _felt_ it. My Aura takes damage, and thanks to my Semblance, I can dish it back twice as strong. You didn't leave a mark on the gym wall because it was soft, you know!"

"That explains your Semblance. It almost mirrors mine. Every second I spend fighting, my strength keeps growing." He made a brief pause. "That is why I was so wary of attacking. I didn't want to go beyond three minutes on our fight because of that. The only time I actually _tried_ to go further, someone almost died."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you were pulling your punches." She rolled her eyes, an amused expression plastered on her face. "And here I thought you were just being a gentleman."

Wyatt smirked and crossed his arms. "You never know. I could have been doing both."

Yang raised an eyebrow at him, and right away, his eyes widened in surprise, suddenly realizing what he had done.

"Why did I say that?" He shook his head and put down his arms. "Forget I said that."

She just leaned against the elevator's wall. "If you say so, tough guy." Then she winked at him.

The elevator went silent again, and Wyatt resorted to just looking in front of him.

"Have you ever almost killed someone by accident? No, of course you haven't. You virtually parade your fist to everyone you see." He turned to her with a serious expression. "If you had ever done that, then you would be wary of lifting your arms, or even hugging your sister."

She said nothing in response.

Soon after, they reached the top, and the elevator doors opened. Ozpin looked at them from behind his desk.

"Mr. Whirlwind. I didn't think you'd be back so soon." That would have almost sounded like a joke if not for the neutral tone in his voice.

"I know, sir. Believe me, none of this is how I imagined my day would end up." Wyatt honestly looked sad.

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "I'm sorry to hear that." He then turned his attention to Yang. "Miss Xiao Long. Thank you for coming."

"Sure thing, Professor."

Seemingly satisfied with her response, he looked at Wyatt again.

"Sir, I know this seems bad, and that my actions have caused a lot of destruction, but as ridiculous as this might be, you have to believe me when I say that it was all an accident." The boy took a seat opposite to his desk.

"I'm sure it was." He turned to Yang again. "Care to take a seat?"

"Allllrighty." She did just as the headmaster requested.

Wyatt decided to just keep quiet and let Ozpin talk before saying anything else.

"Now, you're probably aware of the reason I asked you to come." His unchanging voice was starting to scare the boy. "You managed to make quite a spectacle out of yourselves."

"There weren't too many injured, right?" Wyatt asked in concern.

Ozpin leaned on his desk. "Their Aura was very nearly depleted. Any more damage and they would have been badly injured."

"Oh." Wyatt looked down in shame. "I see. I'm thankful that there were no casualties at the very least." He then looked at Ozpin. "I will accept my expulsion, headmaster."

In turn, the older man just stared at him in silence for a moment before turning his attention to his other visitor. "Is there anything you'd like to say, Miss Xiao Long?"

"Only that fighting Smiley here was awesome!" She pointed at Wyatt as she said that. "A really… _smashing_ experience! Eh?"

"Didn't you hear what the headmaster just said? We almost killed at least fifty people!" He turned to her, outraged at her lack of concern. "Seriously, be at least a bit more considerate of their feelings! They didn't even get injured while engaging in fights of their own; they were mere collateral damage! Wouldn't you feel bad if you lost an arm and _that_ was the reason?"

"Don't get me wrong, okay? I'm not proud of that part." She looked at him in a similar manner. "…I'm just trying to focus on the positives."

Her complete change caught him off-guard, but before he could even process it, she suddenly smiled again.

"They're not dead, so it's a win." Then she turned away, leaning against her chair once more. "Wouldn't you agree, Professor?"

Ozpin took a sip from his mug. "…You're not wrong."

"But we can't leave this kind of mess unpunished, right, Professor?" Wyatt asked with a sad face.

As though in response, he put his mug down.

"…I expected this, Mr. Whirlwind."

"What?" He asked, confused. "Uh… what do you mean, Professor?"

"We check every aspiring student's transcripts very thoroughly. I know exactly what you can do." He shifted his focus over to Yang. "Both of you."

Wyatt looked at Yang too, feeling rather confused, before turning to Ozpin again, waiting for him to continue.

"How did your fight start? I'd like to know."

Yang pointed at herself. "I asked him."

"You taunted me." Wyatt corrected her. "And things kind of escalated. I wanted to knock some sense into you and teach you why I shouldn't have a sparring partner, and you kept pushing until I eventually gave in."

Ozpin offered a simple response. "I see."

Wyatt looked at him, visibly confused. "Professor, with all due respect, you sound awfully calm and understanding, considering the damages that your institution just experienced."

It took a moment before he explained why.

"…It's not the first time this has happened."

"What?" Wyatt could only ask, surprised by the headmaster's answer.

Ozpin took another sip from his drink before putting it down.

"Miss Xiao Long, what would you say is your specialty in the field?" His eyes were fixated on his mug as he said that, not looking directly at Yang despite addressing her.

"Oh, that's easy. Hand-to-hand!" She replied cheerfully. "Smashing things along the way. It's kinda fun like that."

The comment got a smile from the older man.

"And what about you, Mr. Whirlwind?"

"Close combat and disarming of threats, sir." He was much more serious. "If we're being technical, though… I suppose I fall into the hand-to-hand style of fighting too, sir."

Finally, Ozpin tore his eyes away from his mug to look at the two students.

"You're much more similar than you think."

Wyatt looked at Yang and tried to argue, but ultimately sighed and nodded. "True… our Semblances virtually mirror one another."

"And you also had a very evenly matched fight. Even without your teammates stepping in to control the situation, I think it would have ended in a draw."

Yang smiled confidently. "Nah, I totally would have won."

"My stamina would have granted me victory." Wyatt immediately argued with her assessment. "I'll admit I got carried away, but I still managed to remain composed. You just started swinging your arms with no rhyme or reason after your hair suffered a light cut. If the fight had gone on any longer, victory would have been mine."

She laughed at that. "No way."

If they weren't so focused on each other, they would have noticed how Ozpin was merely sitting back and letting the situation unfold, seemingly amused by the exchange.

"You've known me for less than a day, so I'm gonna let you know ahead of time, Smiley."

All of a sudden, her eyes changed from purple to red, much like they did during their fight.

" **Nobody… touches… my hair.** " Her voice turned a lot more menacing, too.

Wyatt huffed and looked away.

"Duly noted." He answered. "…I'd still win, though."

Yang suddenly laughed, her voice seemingly returning to its usual carefree tone. "Yeah, you wish."

He decided to remain silent, not even looking at her as she grinned at his annoyed reaction.

"It looks like you have similar ideas too." Ozpin made sure things wouldn't stay quiet for long.

"If you mean anger at one another, then I agree, Professor." Wyatt immediately offered a retort. "I'm not exactly sure what are you getting to. Yes, our powers are similar, but it seems to me that there's a very big, very clear maturity gap between us."

Yang had herself a brief laugh. "Seems to me like someone's all frowns and no fun."

"Better than being all jokes and no control."

That didn't even upset her. "Hey, I've done well so far. Can't argue with the results!"

Their brief argument was interrupted by Ozpin taking another sip from his mug, which also drew their attention back to him.

"Even now, you're not acting very differently from one another." He put it down. "I've had many students who were just like you. Young people who favored close-quarters combat over all else, so determined to become Huntsmen and Huntresses." He suddenly began to lean on his desk. "And all of them had an unspoken kinship that not even they could explain."

He seemed rather amused when he noticed the two teens' surprise.

"So many of them got to know each other better through their fights than they did through any kind of conversations. Even when they were facing someone for the first time, it was almost like every one of them could predict the other's moves, and they were willing to unwind fully because they knew their opponent would do the same."

Wyatt looked at him skeptically. "Professor… you talk like she and I knew each other from a long time ago, which is most certainly _not_ the case, I can assure you. We simply had a fight. That's all."

"I know you just met today." Ozpin replied without missing a beat. "But you've shown that you have the same kind of connection that so many like you have had before… and I suspect that it might play an important role in your future here at Beacon Academy."

"Future?" Wyatt asked in surprise. "You mean we can continue studying here? We're not to be suspended, even?"

Suddenly, the headmaster surprised him with a smile. "On your first day? That seems… unwise."

Yang nudged him, clearly amused at his shocked reaction. "And yoouuuuuu were scared."

"I… I really don't know what to say…" Wyatt instantly felt much more relaxed. "Thank you, Professor. You really are a kind man. I promise, from this point on, I will be very careful when using my power."

Ozpin nodded in response. "I certainly hope so."

"So, will that be all? Because if so, there is a little something else that's kind of bothering me and I was wondering if I could ask about it."

He looked at the younger man curiously. "Feel free."

"You told us about some unknown kind of kinship forming, but I was wondering… do you know _why_ that relationship forms in the first place?"

Ozpin looked at him in silence for a moment, as if he was trying to read his new student, before turning his attention to Yang. "What about you, Miss Xiao Long? Are you curious as well?"

"Now that you mention it, I guess I am."

In response, he surprised the two by standing up from his chair and heading for a window, staring quietly at the outside.

"Professor?" Wyatt spoke up again, not sure on how to react to his answer. "Is something the matter?"

Despite a lack of movement, Ozpin replied to him. "I believe I know the reason." His tone was completely unchanged. "Do you see what I see?"

Wyatt approached him, still unsure, and looked outside the window as well. Yang was quick to do the same, though she was much more confident in her approach.

"Umm… the school terrains, Professor?" He looked at the distance, and caught a glimpse of the city as well. "Vale?"

As he turned to look at Ozpin, he noticed that the older man was focused on one particular spot.

"Look again."

Turning to try and see whatever it is that he was seeing, Wyatt and Yang noticed something in particular.

The site of their very brief fight.

All of the students had cleared out the area. They knew their teammates were probably just waiting for them, but they couldn't account for the rest. Before either one of them could comment on how the damage seemed less severe than when they were asked to meet Ozpin, though, they spotted something on that same area.

"Is that Professor Goodwitch down there?" Yang asked, turning to the headmaster. "I thought she had left."

Wyatt tried to adjust his eyes, and although it was hard to spot, he could indeed make out the vague silhouette of Glynda Goodwitch.

"Why is she still there?"

Suddenly, all of the debris still present on the area started to float into the air.

"She makes it her job to take care of any property damage that takes place within the academy."

Right on cue, every single piece of wreckage started floating towards where the gym used to stand, somehow managing to come together exactly the same way they remembered it. Once the building reassembled itself, they were surprised by the results.

"All that destruction… cleaned up and put back together, like nothing ever happened…" Wyatt was unable to hide his amazement.

Yang was equally impressed. "That's just… amazing."

"It certainly is." Ozpin nodded. "Her Semblance comes in handy when fights get too… extreme."

Noticing the two youths were at a loss for words, he decided to get to the point he was trying to make.

"You're afraid that a friendly fight might become too extreme, aren't you?" Without even looking, he knew he had gotten their attention. "Out in the field, fighting the creatures of Grimm, you fear nothing, but during a spar with a friend or teammate… you hold yourselves back."

"We have to, Professor. No offense, but these…" He raised both of his fists. "…aren't exactly things we can 'take off', and when your fists are your weapons, _you_ _are_ the weapon."

"You are correct." Ozpin nodded once again. "But that's exactly why you did what you did today, isn't it?" Then he finally turned to the two, focusing specifically on Yang. "You knew he would be able to give you a fight without holding anything back, didn't you, Miss Xiao Long?"

"Well, I don't just challenge anyone, you know?" Yang's carefree attitude made a spontaneous return again. "He fit the sketch perfectly."

Wyatt scoffed. "What 'sketch', exactly? Grumpy? Cold? Distant?" He suddenly stopped, as if he had just realized what he was doing. "Oh, sorry, Professor. Please continue."

"Thank you, Mr. Whirlwind." With that, the headmaster resumed his explanation. "I don't claim to know exactly why, but that is my theory. Many Huntsmen and Huntresses who specialize in close quarters combat tend to do so because it's a perfect fit for a combination of combat experience and great strength, but unless they're on a mission or fighting off the Grimm, they tend to hold back and not display their full power to make sure they don't damage anything unnecessarily." He turned away from the two, focusing on the rebuilt gym. "Except when they meet someone who's just like them. Perhaps they don't feel like they live in a world that's far too fragile for them anymore, and they are free to show their full potential to a fellow Huntsman or Huntress who can take their efforts on equal ground."

Wyatt took those words to heart, and looked at his fist while thinking to himself.

"Someone like me…" He smiled and closed his eyes. "The fight was, in a way, liberating. Maybe a part of me didn't want it to end because of that…"

"There you go. Now you know how I felt." Yang commented before punching him in the shoulder.

Ozpin adjusted his glasses. "Well, whatever it is that causes it, I think it's already taking effect."

"Thank you for clarifying things, Professor." Wyatt smiled at him. "Are we free to go?"

"Of course." He finally looked at his student again. "Unless there's anything else you would like to bring to my attention, Mr. Whirlwind." Then he turned his attention to Yang. "Or you, Miss Xiao Long."

"Nah. I had my fun. Thanks, Professor."

Seemingly satisfied, Ozpin sat down again. "In that case, I believe we're done here." Then he turned away, reaching out for his mug. "I hope the two of you will make it to your first class in time tomorrow."

"Thank you, Professor. We will." Wyatt gave him a small bow before turning around and heading for the elevator.

Yang was quick to follow, giving the headmaster an equally quick gesture before leaving.

As the elevator doors closed in front of the two, Ozpin made one final comment.

"Now I'm _certain_ that this will be an interesting year."

* * *

Meanwhile, at ground level, the other members of Teams RWBY and SMWK were waiting just outside the building entrance. Some were sitting down, some others were standing up, and a couple of them were leaning against a wall.

Maza looked around, occasionally paying attention to the elevator in which Wyatt and Yang went not too long ago. "They've been there for a while now. Do you think Professor Ozpin got mad at them?"

"Ozpin? Nah, I'm sure he's just talking with them like he did with me." Ruby didn't look too worried.

Weiss brought a hand to her face. "I can't believe they did that. What were they thinking?"

"Maybe Wyatt was angry and Yang just pushed him further." Maza suddenly frowned. "He's been having a bit of a hard time accepting us as his teammates."

Kale sighed at that. "Yeah… he didn't want any teammates. At all."

"That doesn't make any sense." The last member of Team RWBY, Blake Belladonna, was completely blunt with her thoughts.

"Welcome to my skin, Blake." Set responded. "And we live together. If you could hear him snoring…"

Maza tilted her head, confused. "But it's our first day."

"It's just a joke, cupcake. He looks way too serious to be the snoring kind anyway." He quickly retorted.

Ruby chuckled at that, and Kale soon followed suit.

"That explains a lot, actually." Weiss spoke up again. "I reached out to him so that he could think about being on a team with me, and he completely rejected me."

Kale turned to her. "He did the same thing when Maza said that they were partners. He even tried to talk back to Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch when they said we'd be made into a full team."

"Ouch." Ruby actually winced at that. "Not the best way to start the semester, right?"

Set rolled his eyes at that. "Tell me about it. Our first interaction wasn't exactly friendly banter. In fact, it was quite a heated little discussion… and by 'heated', I mean 'more intense than a forest fire'."

Before anyone else could comment on that, Maza raised a hand.

"B-But don't think poorly of him. Deep down, he _is_ a good person. He just needs a bit of time to come out of his shell."

The group stayed quiet for a moment, not sure how to take the Faunus girl's affirmation.

"Well… we might actually be off to a good start." Kale eventually broke the silence. "He _did_ say something about Yang earning his respect before Professor Goodwitch showed up."

All of a sudden, Ruby had a big smile on her face. "Yep, that sounds like Yang. She's really good at making friends."

Soon after, the elevator doors finally opened, which got the entire group's attention. Wyatt and Yang stepped out to meet with their teams.

"I think we should stay away from each other from now on, Miss Xiao Long." Wyatt immediately addressed his companion.

Ruby blinked a few times. "What?"

"It's clearly dangerous for us to interact." He continued. "We destroyed a gym! I think that is proof enough of that, don't you?"

Yang smirked at him. "Does that mean you didn't enjoy our playdate?"

Wyatt found himself groaning in response.

"Do you really need to turn _everything_ into a joke?"

Maza immediately got worried. "Oh, boy… we'd better stop them before they fight again."

She quickly approached the two, the others following immediately after.

Yang remained unfazed. "Look, sunshine, we both heard what Ozpin said. You can deny it all you want, but I'm sure we're going to be great friends." She crossed her arms. "You can stop talking to me, but you can't stop me from talking to you."

"If you wanna get through to him, you better have the patience of a saint, Dynamite." Set took the opportunity to make a snarky remark. "Trust me, we've tried."

That managed to get the two brawlers' attention.

"How did things go up there, Yang?" Surprisingly, Blake was the next one to speak up.

Just as she was about to answer, Wyatt interrupted her.

"It appears that Miss Xiao Long and I have… some things in common."

"Oh, you mean like how you both like to punch stuff?" Ruby asked, completely unironically, which got Weiss to facepalm again.

"…Yes." Wyatt eventually replied, looking equally as annoyed as the white-haired girl. "The kinds of things that could be devastating in a clash, as you saw earlier. Professor Ozpin told us that this kind of situation has happened before."

Maza's eyes were wide open as she smiled. "Cool."

"Yep, but Smiley here's not having it today." Yang turned to Wyatt and gave him a friendly nudge… which, to him, felt like getting hit in the arm by a rock. "C'mon, just give me a smile already."

As soon as he recovered his footing, he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Look. I will try to put it as simply as possible." He let his hand drop down. "We are Huntsmen and Huntresses. Do you know what that title means? It means we are the line of defense between humanity and the monsters outside. 'Friends', 'chilling out' and 'loosening up' are for civilians! We gave all that up the moment we picked up our weapons."

She merely pretended to think about it before giving her answer.

"…Nah. I don't buy it. Try again."

That got him to look at her again, eyes wide open. "What?"

"I said I don't buy it." She smirked at him. "And something tells me that neither do you."

"I just… oh, forget it." He started to walk away. "Just give up. We are _not_ going to become friends."

He didn't get too far before Yang suddenly jumped up in front of him.

"Don't buy that either!"

Before he could say anything, Weiss spoke up.

"Alright, it looks like this is going to go on all night unless someone does something about it." Then she walked up to the two. "Unlike what you may think, we _don't_ have that kind of time. How about we just leave this here and go to sleep before you two get yourselves in even more trouble?"

Wyatt looked at her for a moment before turning to Yang. "Will that work for you?"

"Yeah, sure." She replied, still smirking. "We've got a whole year ahead of us, buddy."

He visibly shook before answering. "I'm not your—"

"Yeah, I know."

He said nothing in response. All he could do was look at her quizzically.

Once again, it took a moment before someone broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Sooooo…" This time, it was Ruby. "…who's ready to go to sleep?"

Set howled a yawn. "Boy, I was thinking the exact same thing, Hoodie."

"Okay then, let's do it." Kale stretched his arms out for a moment. "I think we could all use a break."

"See you tomorrow, Ruby!" Maza waved goodbye before leaving, with Wyatt following her wordlessly.

Ruby waved back at her. "Bye!" Then she started to make her way out, Weiss and Blake following her without another word.

Before Yang could do the same, she turned to look at Set.

"Hey, you."

He turned to her in response. "Yeah?"

"You're the team leader, right?"

He replied nonchalantly. "That's me. Next question."

She started walking in his direction.

"You know, for a guy who can't stand his teammate, you sure were quick to lay the blame off of him." Then she started chuckling. "You did a pretty good job taking control of things, too. If we hadn't been so stubborn, I bet it would've worked."

He shrugged. "Meh, it's no big woof. Any of my teammates would have done it too. I guess I just acted faster than them."

That got another chuckle out of Yang.

"Just like Ruby." She took a moment to examine the Faunus boy. "I guess team leaders just have that in common."

"…Never been one to call myself a leader. I'm more of a scout or a strategist." Set smiled at his own words, almost like an innocent child. "A leader takes people places. A teammate discovers alongside them. That's what I believe."

She gave him a smirk, just like with Wyatt. "Heart of a poet, huh?"

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Then he smirked back. "I think it's high time we leave."

"Yeah, me too." Suddenly, she surprised him with a very light punch to the cheek. "Good luck, hotshot."

As she walked away, he muttered something to himself.

"…Thanks, hot stuff."

He smiled slightly, amused by his own comment…

"Wow, that was quick."

…only to be startled by the presence of his brother.

"Whoa! Woof, man! Don't scare me like—" It took a moment, but he soon realized what he had heard. "Wait… what was quick?"

"You like her, don't you?" Kale asked, much more genuine than one would expect from such a question. "I mean, I'm not judging you or anything, but it's just our first day. I didn't think you'd be into someone until next semester."

Set's tail started wagging a bit.

"Dude… you saw her. You saw the same stuff I did. She. Is. Awesome. The kind of awesome I would bark at…" All of a sudden, he stopped. "Wait, that sounds wrong. You know what I mean."

Kale chuckled at that. "Yeah, I know what you mean."

"Anyway, let's get going. I could use a snooze, and Foxy and Chess Rook are far ahead already. We better catch up." Set patted his brother on the shoulder and started walking away with a noticeable smile.

Kale was quick to follow. "Right behind you, fearless leader."

* * *

Here we go. That's the second part of that little sequence. We don't really have any new names to explain here, and to be honest, it's kind of hard to comment on what just transpired here. In all seriousness, though, writing this was a fun process for all three of us, and we're just hoping that it was just as much fun to read.

Now that the first night has finally gone by, it's time to get to one of the most complicated parts of any school or college: a freshman's first day. How is that going to turn out? Stay tuned if you want to find out.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	9. Chapter 9

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Well, just as promised earlier, here we are. One last update before the year ends. Here's hoping it'll do a good job of bidding it farewell and open the door for more exciting and cool things to come!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

After a particularly… eventful night, the team simply headed for their room without much else to say and tried to get some sleep.

The following morning, the room was mostly quiet, filled only with the sounds of some soft breathing and the occasional brief mutters.

"Yes, I would love another slice of pie…"

However, that quickly changed the exact moment the first ray of sunshine came in through the window.

Right after that happened, a loud noise was heard all around the room, almost like a drill was spinning but not actually drilling through anything. Needless to say, everyone in the room woke up immediately at the sound of that.

"Whoa! What's going on?!" Kale immediately exclaimed. "Where's the fire?!"

As soon as he and the others opened their eyes, they were greeted by the image of Wyatt, the only one who was not sleeping. However, instead of the same outfit they remembered him wearing during the past few days, he was clad in what looked like a basic uniform.

"Good morning, everyone." He said, with a small smile on his face. "It's so good to see all of you awake already."

Maza rubbed one of her eyes. "Wyatt? What are you doing?"

"It's nearly 7 AM." He quickly replied. "You know what that means."

His attention was immediately drawn to Set, as he heard him groaning.

"What it means is that my hearing's sensitive." The Faunus boy was glaring at him. "And if you do that again, I swear I'm going to take those weapons and make sure no one can tell where they end and you begin."

Wyatt just blinked a few times.

"No… it means we need to hurry. We don't want to be late." He gave a small bag to each of his teammates. "I took the time to get us some breakfast. Enjoy it, but make sure you don't eat it too slowly." Then he backed away from them. "We have a whole training schedule to plan, and we should make the best of the time we have."

Kale suddenly yawned. "…Our classes don't start until 9 AM." Unlike his brother, he didn't come off as angry, but he didn't exactly sound happy either.

"That's exactly the reason why we need to get ready for it. I was thinking a few laps would help you wake up. What would you do if we just slept through a class where important information was being dispensed?"

"Like… what they're serving at the dining hall?" Maza asked in response.

"More like what to do if a pack of Grimm are swarming you and you need to think of a way to escape."

Wyatt's teammates just stared at him, their faces conveying differing amounts of irritation, confusion or just sheer disbelief.

"…Are you serious?" He could definitely relate to that last emotion. "You're Huntsmen now. All of you. Don't you understand where we are right now?" He looked at each of them for a moment.

Set groaned. "Okay… listen up, Windy. I'm a scout. That means I get information, I hit when no one expects it, and I keep myself aware of my surroundings." Before Wyatt could offer a reply, he started talking again. "Aware. That was the key word in that sentence. As in, awake. You know how I do that? By not waking up two hours before a class!"

"We'll be training to ensure our survival." Wyatt was quick to respond. "We'll be taught by veterans who managed to fight the enemy and live to tell the tale. They could make the difference between life and death. Do you _really_ want to miss that?"

Kale was about to say something, but then he was interrupted by his teammate walking over to Maza's bed.

"Come on. We're supposed to be partners now. You insisted on it. We have to start training so we can get our fighting styles and techniques in sync."

The Faunus girl started to panic. "B-B-But I haven't even had my breakfast yet!"

"That's why I put it in a bag. You can take it with you."

Suddenly, Wyatt's eyes widened and he started to head for the door.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I'll be right back."

The second he left, both Set and Kale had the same reaction: a facepalm.

"We have to do something." Maza, on the other hand, said what was on her mind. "We have to stop him before he has any other ideas!"

While Set merely groaned at that comment, Kale put his hand down, and judging by the expression on his face, the others could only imagine he was doing some serious thinking. They quickly decided not to interrupt him, and instead, they'd just wait for him to speak.

"…I think I've got it." Eventually, he raised his head. "I know just what to do, guys."

Maza's eyes immediately widened at that. "What? What is it? Please, please, pleeeaaase, don't leave me wondering, Kale!"

Before he could answer her, Wyatt walked back into the room.

"I apologize for that. That was my mistake."

In what almost seemed like a response to that, Kale spoke up before he had a chance to continue.

"Listen, Wyatt… I think you're going about this the wrong way."

The boy raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "How do you mean?"

"It's just the first day. This is going to be our first class." Kale cracked his neck a couple times. "We're not in the army. And believe me, I'd know; my dad's ex-military."

Wyatt gave him a disbelieving look. "We're Huntsmen. It's our duty to stay alert at all times."

"Isn't that exactly what I said?" Set immediately retorted, still as unamused as before.

"But… we're not. Not yet." Maza pointed at her friend. "Like Kale said, it's just our first day."

Wyatt sighed in frustration.

"Well, forgive me for showing some initiative!"

Kale immediately cleared his throat, hoping to stop things from getting uncomfortable.

"Hey, listen, you've definitely got initiative, and I can respect that. I'm not lying, I promise." He started rubbing the side of his neck. "But again, it's just the first day. We're barely getting started. Shouldn't we save it for another time? A class that requires us to prepare like that, for example?"

Wyatt stared at him for a moment, unsure what to say or think. As he turned to the others, he noticed that they looked like they were fully on board with that idea.

And as much as he didn't want to, he had to admit that he was being presented with a fair point.

"…Very well." He finally responded. "Just… just promise me that you're not going to make up any excuses to dodge the training sessions we do agree on."

As soon as she shook off her surprise, Maza sighed in relief.

"We wouldn't have come all the way here if we wanted to be lazy." She smiled at him.

Set did the same, although his was more of a cheeky grin. "Listen to your partner, Windy. She's got a point."

"…Alright." Wyatt finally conceded. "In that case, I think I will do some meditation for now." He then stretched his arms a little and began to head for the door. "Look for me in the classroom when you are ready to start the day."

Kale nodded, even though he knew his teammate wouldn't see it. "Understood."

Once Wyatt was gone, Maza sighed, letting herself fall back on top of her bed.

After a few moments of tossing and turning, she finally stopped and stared at the ceiling. "Guys?"

"'Sup?" Her leader answered.

"Are you thinking that if Yang is an early bird and she meets up with him, they will demolish another part of the academy? Or is that just me?"

Kale raised his hand. "Actually, I was thinking about how we're probably not going to be able to go back to sleep for now." Then he put it down. "Maybe we could use that time to unpack." He chuckled for a second. "I know our fearless leader would love to get his hammock ready."

At the mention of that, Maza gasped dramatically.

"Omigosh, you're right!" She kicked the bedsheets off of herself and stood up. "I want to help with that!"

Set took a good look at his teammates; Kale was smiling contently, and Maza's face could only be described as "beaming".

"…You make a good point, bro. And you know how hard it is to say 'no' to that sky beam face that Cupcake makes when she's excited about something."

With a delighted giggle, Maza immediately went to look for her things.

"Hey, I like your onesie." She was stopped by a comment from Kale. "It looks comfy and warm."

She smiled at that, and she immediately turned to look at him, her tail wagging.

"Thank you! You know, there's a lot of people out there who say they're just for little kids." As she spoke, her voice overly dramatic and full of pride, she struck a pose right out of a superhero comic, with her hands on her hips. "Well, to them I say… if being an adult means giving up on comfort, I will make it my life's mission to forever be a toddler!"

She followed this up by checking her belongings and bringing out a poster for her friends to see.

"And I love-love- _looooove_ the Achieve Men!"

Set merely smirked and shared a sympathetic comment. "You'll always be my favorite ray of sunshine."

"Aww, thank you, boss." With that, she went back to unpacking her things.

Suddenly, Kale got out of bed and stood up.

"Well, I think I'm gonna go and take a shower." He stretched his legs for a second. "With how long it's going to take, you guys should have plenty of time to set up the hammock, just like you wanted."

"You heard him, pancake. Let's 'Set' it up." Set finished with a cringeworthy pun. He simply smirked, not even ashamed of what he had said.

"You got it, boss!" She gave him a salute. "By the way, since you're not going to use that mattress… can I have it? Please?"

As he made his way out, Kale seemed confused. "Why do you want it?"

"Like I said, I like comfort. Having two mattresses? It sounds super comfy." She answered with another smile. "Besides, it'd be a waste if we didn't use it, right?"

"Oh." He resumed his exit, smiling back at her. "Alright, makes sense to me."

"Go wash up, K! You'll catch a glimpse of the greatest hammock ever when you return. Bet on it!" Set seemed excited about setting up his soon-to-be bed-like means to rest. "Alright, Foxy, let's turn this chore into a game. Whaddya say?"

Maza made no attempts at hiding her excitement. "I say… game on!"

* * *

Silence.

Wyatt was alone in what he could only assume was a classroom, even though it looked much more like a lecture hall to him. Much like his new team had suggested, he was early.

Not one to waste an opportunity, he did as he had told them. Taking advantage of the peace and quiet he had run into, he closed his eyes and meditated.

For the longest time, there was nothing except the low sounds of his breathing.

The white-haired boy quietly reflected on the events that had transpired during the past couple of days.

 _Control your breathing. Center your energy._ The whole time, he kept thinking the same thing.

He took a very deep breath.

 _Control your breathing. Center your energy. Detach yourself… join with the—_

 _"You're much more similar than you think."_

The moment he remembered Professor Ozpin's words, Wyatt shook his head, upset at himself for letting his focus drift away.

 _No! I can't get sidetracked. I'm here for one reason and one reason only. I will **not** get distracted!_

As if in answer, his thoughts were disrupted again.

 _"Look at all you've done!"_

His new team leader's words echoing in his mind, Wyatt suddenly found himself feeling guilty.

 _…What **have** I done so far? Destroy the gym and treat my teammates like training dummies? Who does that?_

He took another deep breath, but before he could continue, another thought managed to distract him.

 _"What we need is to function as a unit, as you so eloquently put it. And honestly, with the way you guys are bickering, we'll be dead in a month even if we train every day."_

He sighed and opened his eyes, only to immediately look at the gauntlet that Set had previously damaged.

 _Maybe… maybe I've been too harsh on those guys. Maybe I could… try to know them a bit better. I **do** have to coordinate my moves with them eventually, after all._

He nodded with a smile before resuming his meditation.

 _Maybe I can…_

Before he could get to what he wanted to do, however, one more thought would make sure to interrupt him.

 _"You can deny it all you want, but I'm sure we're going to be great friends."_

He opened his eyes again and looked at the palm of his hand.

 _If only it were that easy…_

* * *

 _Some time later…_

"Come on, guys! I'm pretty sure it's over here!"

As she made her way through the hallways, Maza dragged her two friends along. Much like Wyatt when he woke them up, they were also wearing uniforms.

"Take it easy, sunshine! I can barely breathe in this monkey suit, let alone move!" Set expressed discomfort with his school uniform.

Kale did his best to tug on his collar. "Yeah, I'm having a little trouble getting used to it too."

"Well, I think you guys look awesome!"

Set then proceeded to pull on his necktie a bit, and undid the highest button on the shirt, sighing loudly in relief.

"Lesson learned: next time, do _not_ button up. Also, wear a bow tie."

The Faunus girl giggled at that. "Okay, I'll buy you some bow ties later, boss. Promise."

Kale just chuckled along with her.

Soon after, the trio reached what they hoped was the right classroom. To their relief, the first thing they ran into once they made their way in was Wyatt, who immediately turned around and nodded at them.

"Morning, team." He was quick to speak. "I hope you managed to get enough rest."

"We did, actually." Maza smiled as she took a seat right next to Wyatt. "What about you? How was your meditation?"

He stayed quiet for a few seconds. "It gave me time to think about a lot of things, actually."

"Yeah? Like what?" Kale walked over and took a seat on the opposite side.

He sighed and looked down. "…I have been a bit unreasonable with all of you. I haven't even given you a chance to properly say your names or your backstories, and… I owe you an apology for that."

"Well, I'll be. Hugged your teddy bear this morning, Titan?" Set retorted.

Wyatt turned to him, frustrated. "Do you really need to do that, sir? I'm trying to apologize and start over. Is that so hard to believe?"

"Don't take it personal, alright?" Much to his surprise, Kale immediately stepped in. "He's always like that. Believe me, he appreciates the effort."

He quickly turned away. "Duly noted. I will make an effort to get used to that banter."

The room stayed quiet for a few moments, as if none of them knew how to follow that up.

"So, would you like to tell us a little about yourself?" Wyatt was the one to break the silence, looking at his team leader again. "Where I come from, the leader usually starts with the backstories."

Right away, Maza perked up. "Oh! Oh! I know! I have an idea!" As she said that, she raised her hand. "How about we start with our names, then where we're from, and finally, a fun fact about ourselves?"

"Sounds like a plan." Kale replied with a nod. "Alright, little brother, go ahead."

And just as requested, Set answered first.

"My name is…" He immediately stopped, quickly thinking against giving his full name. "… Set Prowl. I'm from Vacuo, and… w-well, everything I am today, and part of what I aspire to do and be, is due to my grandpa."

He made a pause to look at his team's reactions. Kale had a smile on his face, Maza's excitement hadn't wavered in the slightest, and Wyatt's expression was completely neutral.

"No joke. My chain? It was his weapon. The cape hanging next to my hammock? Used to be his. Tattered and torn as it may look, those are the markings of thousands of battles. I was even named after him. And all the stories my mom would tell us…" He smiled, looking almost like a child who was gushing about their idol. "There's no one I look up to more than him. He's… my personal hero."

Maza's smile was fairly similar. "He really sounds like an awesome grandpa."

"Yep, you better believe it." Kale sounded equally as proud as his brother.

Pleased with the results, Set turned his attention to Wyatt.

"They say that a warrior's true might is measured not by the medals on his wall, but by the scars on his back." He spoke honestly. "Based on its state, that cape must be clear proof that he was a noble and kind warrior."

Set immediately replied to that. "I hope to be half the man he was one day. I aim to live up to his name."

"You will, bro." Kale was equally quick to praise his team leader.

Maza simply hugged him, confident that it would get the message across.

"What about you?" Wyatt asked, directly addressing the Faunus girl. "What is your story?"

She looked at him in confusion for barely a second, but eventually she understood.

"Oh, right! My turn!" After releasing Set, she straightened herself up. "Okie dokie, my name's Maza Reynard, and I'm from around here in Vale. My house is actually not too far away from Beacon." Then she started to think. "Fun fact? Hmm…"

The three boys stared at her in silence as she did so.

"Wait, I know!" She eventually spoke again. "I wrote a letter with my right foot when I was fifteen years old." Then she giggled. "That was a fun birthday."

Set and Kale looked somewhat amused, but Wyatt just seemed confused.

"Okay… I don't know if that's what we were expecting, but I suppose we could grant you that." It took him a moment to figure out how to follow that up. "Why don't you tell us a little about your weapon?"

Right away, she shook her head. "Oh, no, nonono, that's cheating." Once she stopped, she smiled at him. "It's your turn, Wyatt."

"You know this isn't a game, right?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Maza only continued to stare at him with the exact same smile.

"…You are not going to say anything else until I say something about myself, are you?"

She shook her head again.

Wyatt closed his eyes and sighed.

"Fine." He looked at his wristband for a second before continuing. "My name is Wyatt Whirlwind. I was born during the night, educated and raised by my mother in a simple, quiet and humble town in the continent of Anima. I have the ability to improve my physical resistance and attack strength with every second that I spend on a fight. My power will keep on building and reach its maximum point at the 3-minute mark."

As soon as he turned to her again, he noticed how impressed she looked. "Oooooohhhh…"

"Now then… tell us about your weapon—"

"Wait a second." Kale immediately interrupted him. "Just Anima? As in… outside of Mistral?"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow again. "Is there something wrong with the fact that I came from a place outside the kingdoms?"

"Try 'one of the most dangerous places outside of the kingdoms'! How did you not croak, Big Man?" Set retorted.

Wyatt merely shrugged at that. "I could tell you, but like Maza said… that would be cheating." Then he pointed at Kale. "Isn't it your brother's turn now, sir?"

"Oh, yeah, you're right!" Maza was the one who responded, though. "Hey, Kale, tell us about yourself, okay? Please?"

He couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Alright." He was quick to answer. "So, um… my name's Kale Midnight, and I, uh, also come from Vacuo." Unlike his brother, however, he had some trouble articulating his thoughts. "And my fun fact is… well, um…" He looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped himself a few times before finally getting it out. "I'm… kind of a late entry."

Right away, Maza tilted her head. "How do you mean, Kale?"

"Remember when I said I was a year older than Wyatt?" She nodded. "That wasn't a joke or anything. I'm eighteen years old."

"So, you are the oldest of our group. Well, in that case, I would also consider you the wisest." Wyatt decided to offer a suggestion. "I believe strategy and planning for long battles could be entrusted to you if need be. Be careful, though; even the most solid of plans can go south at any given time. Perhaps you should consider some focus training in stressful scenarios."

Kale stared at him, confused. "I'm… pretty sure that would be Set's call, not mine. Team leader, y'know?"

"So… why didn't you go to an academy when you were seventeen?" Maza asked, before thinking of another question. "Actually, why did you come here instead of going to Shade Academy?"

"Because our parents graduated here at Beacon. I wanted to do the same, but they weren't entirely convinced."

The girl blinked a couple times, surprised by the sudden reveal. "If that's true, how did you get them to let you come here?"

"The reason is now your team leader, sunshine." Set retorted, in a slightly snarky, yet mostly comedic manner.

Right on cue, Kale laughed at that. "Yep. He wanted to come too, and I guess that was the point where they realized there was no stopping it."

"Our folks know how hard-headed I can be when I set my mind on something." Suddenly, Set's eyes widened. "No pun intended this time."

Maza stared at the two for a moment.

"Oooooohhhh… now I get it." Then she smiled once again. "Well, I'm glad about that, because I wouldn't trade you guys for anything in Remnant. Not even an interview with the Achieve Men!"

Once again, Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "Who?"

"The Achieve Men?" Much to her confusion, he didn't even react to that. "The greatest band ever in the history of Remnant?"

He merely shrugged. "Not familiar with it. Then again, I'm not familiar with any sort of music, so that could be the reason for my confusion."

Right away, this earned him weird stares from the two brothers. Kale merely seemed a little confused, but Set's expression did a very poor job of hiding his shock. Despite this disparity, their comments turned out to be exactly the same.

"You need to get out more."

Before he could even think of a retort, the team's attention was grabbed by the sound of the entrance door opening.

As the four youths stood up, they were all met by the image of a seemingly middle-aged man, with gray hair, an equally gray mustache, a burgundy suit with some gold ornaments, and a pair of pants tucked into some boots. He also looked slightly overweight.

"Well, what do we have here?" Right away, he noticed their presence. "Oh, a team of early birds! I like your initiative."

Wyatt bowed his head down. "Thank you, sir. I will try to make it a habit."

"It's always great to see more potential Huntsmen and Huntresses here in my class. I look forward to all of our lessons together."

As the gentleman with the fabulous mustache walked away, the team took their seats again and waited for their class to begin…

…until Set fell asleep, no doubt as a result of Wyatt's early wake up call.

"Boss?" Maza poked him with her finger a couple times, to no avail. "Hello?"

The Faunus boy didn't even flinch.

"I guess you were wrong, Kale." She looked at her friend, looking slightly amused by the scene. "One of us went right back to sleep."

He couldn't even come up with a response to that.

* * *

Well, first proper day at Beacon. Things aren't exactly starting up with a bang, but they're definitely getting started in spite of everything. If you're one of those people who has memorized the series inside and out, or even someone who at least vaguely remembers the first few episodes, then you probably already figured out what comes next, and if that's the case, we hope to keep it fun for you.

While we're at it, since we once again have no new names to exposit on, I just want to wish all of our readers a Happy New Year on behalf of both myself and the guys. We really, really appreciate the few people who have really flocked to this story so far, and we hope to do enough that you'll stick around for a long time.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	10. Chapter 10

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Here we go, everyone. Picking up from where we stopped last time, with much less of a time crunch and much more time to iron out all the little wrinkles. Here's hoping you'll enjoy reading it as much as we did planning and writing it. Alrighty then, let's get started!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

Eventually, more students began to enter and take their seats, and at exactly 9 o'clock, the class began, led by the gentleman that the four youths had met earlier.

After a very sudden, very quick and very loud entrance by Team RWBY and their friends, four other students who had been christened by Professor Ozpin as Team JNPR, the man took the opportunity to introduce himself to the assembled group: Professor Peter Port. Much like when he saw Set, Maza, Wyatt and Kale and greeted them, he came across as quite eager to impart his knowledge to all his new students.

The rest of the classroom wasn't quite as excited as him, however.

While Port never once lost traction as he spoke of the creatures of Grimm and the stories that surrounded them, a good deal of his students were too busy trying not to fall asleep, be it through random chatter, scribbling things on a sheet of paper, or even just using their Scrolls under their desks.

Somehow, Set had managed to sleep through most of the class while Port was none the wiser. Maza was too preoccupied with her doodling to wake him up, while Kale was trying his hardest to pay attention, even though he quickly found himself nodding off.

Wyatt could not be more thankful that his team's seats were as far away from their teacher as they were.

 _By the gods… all this information, and they're not even paying attention? How is this my life?_

He rolled his eyes before just deciding to continue taking notes, finding himself genuinely invested as Professor Port kept on imparting his class. He was currently finishing a story about a fierce battle he had with a Beowolf long ago.

Clearly, this man would make a fine teacher during their stay at Beacon.

"The moral of the story?" The older man rose up after taking a bow. "A true Huntsman must be honorable! A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise!"

Wyatt nodded at that.

"So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?"

Just as he put his pencil down, the room was suddenly filled by the sound of a familiar voice.

"I do, sir!"

Right at that moment, Wyatt suddenly felt his enthusiasm draining away.

 _Not her again…_

It was Weiss Schnee.

 _Typical Schnee… can't go one single day without shoving their names down our throats._

"Well then, let's find out." Professor Port's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Step forward, and face your opponent!"

He then gestured at a cage, which had some kind of creature with red eyes inside. As if on cue, the beast growled very loudly, and the cage began to shake around.

"Hmm? Huh? Wha?" Apparently, it was loud enough to get Kale's attention.

"Uh, Professor Port?" He turned his head to the source of the question, only to find that Maza's focus had also shifted. "Is that a real Grimm?"

Port looked at them in turn. "Of course, my dear girl!"

"Is this how every lesson is going to end? Because I like that idea!"

He laughed at that.

"I like your attitude!" Then he turned his attention over to Weiss. "Now then, Miss Schnee, please take a moment to prepare."

The group could see her standing up. "Of course."

As she walked up the stairs to do as she was told, Maza called out to her.

"Aim for its belly, Weiss! They're very ticklish there!"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "…I'm not even going to ask how you know that."

Meanwhile, Kale took a sheet of paper, crumpled it up, and threw it at his brother's head.

"Hey, bro! Wake up!"

"…Huh…? Wuzzat?" Set was visibly drowsy, not yet fully aware of his surroundings. "What's the matter?"

"There's gonna be a fight."

"Uh-huh… okay…" Set responded while scratching his eye.

Kale was confused by his brother's nonchalance, but it only took a second before he figured out what he did wrong.

"It's a Grimm fight."

"What?! Where?!" Immediately, the Faunus boy woke up and turned his head to where Professor Port was standing.

As if in answer, Maza chuckled. "Right there."

"Professor Port's got some kind of Grimm inside that cage." Kale pointed at the exact spot. "He selected a student from among us to fight it. Some sort of talent show, I guess."

"Really? Who did he choose to fight it?" Set asked.

"The Schnee girl." Wyatt answered him, completely uninterested.

Maza nodded. "Yep. Weiss Schnee."

"The crabby one?!"

Kale was the next to nod. "Yeah, the crabby one."

Wyatt looked away. "Go back to sleep, sir. I bet that girl is just going to nag the Grimm to death."

"C'mon, Titan. I wanna see if her prowess matches her big head!"

"I'm with you, bro." The two brothers seemed very enthusiastic. "If she jumped at the chance, she must be really good."

As if in response, the group's attention was diverted by the sound of a door opening.

…Well, _most_ of the group. Wyatt was still completely uninterested.

The others turned to the door, and as expected, Weiss was standing there, clad in the white outfit that they were familiar with, and with a rapier and pouch strapped to her hips on opposite sides. She wasted no time in making her way back to the center of the classroom, standing in front of the cage while keeping her distance.

"Oh, man, here we go." Kale was quick to speak again.

As the white-haired girl grabbed her weapon and got into position, they could hear her teammates cheering her on.

Yang was the first one. "Goooo, Weiss!"

"Fight well!" Then came Blake, sounding much more cheery than she did the previous night.

Last but not least, there was Ruby. "Yeah, represent Team RWBY!"

Weiss wasted no time in snapping back at her leader, basically demanding to be allowed to focus. While Set, Maza and Kale winced at that, all Ruby did was offer a quiet apology.

"Alright!" Professor Port spoke up, grabbing everyone's attention once more. He was currently holding a weapon that was placed on the wall mere moments ago: a blunderbuss with a pair of identical axe blades attached to the stock.

Maza tilted her head. "Wait, when did he grab that?"

"Let the match begin!"

He swung his weapon, and the impact broke the lock on the cage door, which dropped down to the floor. Weiss saw her opponent clearly: a single Boarbatusk.

"Let me know when it's over." Wyatt was entirely focused on his notebook, which he was using to draw some random sketches.

"Suit yourself, Big Man." Set answered shortly after, never taking his eyes off the fight before him.

The Boarbatusk immediately charged Weiss, who used her rapier to deflect the attack and then rolled over to her left, quickly shifting her posture so she and it were still face to face. After it stopped its assault, they both studied each other for a moment.

"Ooh, she's got good reflexes." Maza immediately made an observation.

Kale nodded. "Left-handed grip. Cool."

"Lefty, like me. Hmm…" And as usual, Set offered a snarky response. "Okay, she gets one point."

Next up, it was Weiss who rushed over to face the Grimm, seemingly hoping to jab her weapon right into its skull. Instead, its armored body ensured that the attempt would merely end with said weapon trapped in its tusks. Despite being thrown off-balance for a moment, though, Weiss still held on to the hilt, getting tossed around but refusing to surrender.

"Bold new approach!" Professor Port commented on it. "I like it!"

Kale looked at him for a moment. "Was that sarcasm?"

"I dunno, bro." Set immediately answered. "His fabulous mustache is too distracting for me to spare the mind power to figure it out."

Even as the two had their little conversation, they still noticed that the Boarbatusk managed to separate Weiss from her rapier, wasting no time in ramming her with its tusks and knocking her back.

Professor Port quickly made another comment. "Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?"

Weiss looked up almost immediately after that, and she saw the Grimm rapidly heading in her direction again.

"Oh, this is big." Maza's eyes widened at the scene.

Her panic immediately subsided, however, when the white-haired girl rolled over to the side and dodged the attack. The beast crashed into a desk, and Weiss quickly ran over to grab her sword once more.

The Faunus girl smiled. "Yep. Her reflexes are still great."

"Far from, sorry to say, cupcake." Set replied quickly. "If she was half the big shot her terrible attitude and her ego would have us believe, she wouldn't have lost her rapier that quickly and easily." He then turned to his brother. "Kale, I'm sure we agree that our teachers back in Vacuo would have found that… how did they say it? 'Preposterous and unacceptable, not to mention mediocre'?"

Kale sighed. "Yep, that's exactly what they used to say."

"Lady Rouge was always pretty demanding. Not to mention her extensive language left me boggled more than once."

The older boy chuckled briefly. "Yeah, we always called her 'Lady Sesquipedalian' when you weren't around."

"Oh, bless you."

Maza was the next to chuckle, amused at her teammates' antics.

As they spoke, the battle between the Boarbatusk and young Miss Schnee came to a close, after she dashed in and pierced the creature's stomach.

"Oh, hey, she took my advice!"

Set was quick to comment on this. "That was sloppy at best."

"Bravo! Bra-vo!" Professor Port didn't seem to agree. "It appears we are _indeed_ in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training!"

Wyatt looked up, still completely uninterested. "Is it over? Good. Now we can go back to the class."

"I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today." Their teacher's timing was spot-on, almost like he heard that. "Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"

Wyatt's reply was pretty emotionless.

"…You must be joking." He sighed. "Well, I suppose we're done here." Then he turned to his team leader. "What is the plan now, sir?"

Set glanced at his team for a second. "Well… we might as well go back to our room to change out of these ridiculous things. After that—"

"A training session?" Wyatt quickly suggested. "I have some ideas we could explore."

He followed that up by handing his notebook over to Set, who found on it a list of exercise ideas he had been writing down. The Faunus boy was shocked to find that the very first option was Ursa wrestling matches.

"…I was gonna say 'get back to our little background check session', actually." He tried his best not to come off as confused. "We still need to know more about each other before we operate as a team. Also, Sunshine has been begging me non-stop about our parents' story and all that."

Maza suddenly screamed, shaking Wyatt from the excitement as she did. "Yes! Yesyesyesyesyes! Story time!"

"But—"

"Please?"

Wyatt sighed again. "Okay, fine. If that is what you want, Maza, I will honor your wishes."

"Thank you!" Maza hugged him for barely a second. "Come on, let's go, let's go!"

Before any of her teammates could say anything else, she very quickly rushed for the exit.

"…But maybe we could train afterwards." Somehow, Set was completely unfazed by her actions.

Wyatt shrugged. "Forget about it. The moment's gone anyway." Much like her, he made his way to the exit, although nowhere near as fast. "I will go for a walk after the story. Any one of you can come along if you want."

"Your call, Tall Guy." An immediate answer came from the team leader.

Wyatt looked back at Set, without breaking stride. "I can assure you, sir, that the fact you are shorter than me doesn't imply I'm above average when it comes to height."

As though in answer, he turned back to his front, only for his forehead to collide with the top of the door frame.

"…That doesn't prove anything." He just kept on walking, massaging his forehead as he did.

Set snickered at the scene, while Kale let out a chuckle.

"I heard that!"

* * *

Some time later, the four teens were at their room, now wearing their regular clothes instead of the uniforms that they wore for their class.

As he laid on his bed, Kale breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, man… this feels so much better."

"I'll never button anything all the way up again in my life." His brother definitely agreed. "I like breathing, thank you very much."

Maza nodded, even knowing that her teammates weren't looking at her. "I like my outfit too." Then she sat up on her bed. "So, about that story…"

Laying on his hammock, Set looked at her, and he chuckled at her excited facial expression.

"Alright then. Get comfy, get cookies, get tissues. You're gonna need all of them."

Kale raised his hand. "I think I'm gonna help out with that." He pointed back and forth between Set and himself. "You know, brothers. Might as well, right?"

"Yay!" Maza was visibly shaking. "I'm so excited!"

"I honestly don't really mind if you share the story." Wyatt shrugged before sitting on his own bed like the others. "It was going to happen at some point anyway, right?"

Kale nodded. "I guess so." Then he turned to Set. "So, little brother, you want to start us off?"

"Well, it's a pretty crazy story." The Faunus boy stretched his legs for a moment. "Now, me and Kale, we're from Vacuo, but our parents aren't. They're actually from Vale, and believe it or not, they couldn't stand each other's guts." He scoffed at that. "In fact, they worked hard to _rip out_ each other's guts."

Maza gasped dramatically at that revelation. "No way…"

"Yeah, I know. I couldn't believe it when they first told us either." Kale chuckled.

* * *

 _Many years ago…_

"Ten-hut!"

Human soldiers huddled, facing the man who yelled the summons.

"Battalion Three! Status report!"

A woman with green hair saluted him. "Faunus rebels are situated in Sectors T, R, and A, General! Private Plata faced one of their rogue ensembles, and was forced to retreat, sir!"

"Damn…" He shook his fist in anger. "Battalion Two!"

"Unit Jing separated for recon. They are currently situated in spots where Faunus were commonly seen, sir! They're reporting in every two hours with activity, sir!" A man with light reddish-brown hair responded. "Unit Xuan, which stands before you, managed to gather materials to forge new weaponry, sir!"

The general nodded. "Great news, son. Well done." Then he turned to the last group. "Battalion One!"

"We seized Sectors 3 through 8, sir! The Faunus were merely routed, but we now have the advantage, sir!" A young lady with sky blue eyes and hair reported.

That made him grumble for a moment. "Not the results I was expecting, but still a victory." He looked at her and nodded once again. "Good job, soldier."

Just as he was ready to start giving out orders, a loud yell interrupted him.

" _Medic!_ "

Right on cue, a different man stepped up, running through other soldiers, until he reached the front lines, panting and gasping for air.

"Somebody help me!"

Battalion Two's colonel was shaken. "Private Midnight! What's wrong? You were to dispatch with Unit Jing!"

It took a moment for him to start talking.

"Private… injured… separated from unit… outside." Not everything could be made out from what he was saying, but those words were understood by most of the assembled group. Even though it looked like he had more to say, he passed out after gasping loudly.

Before fading out completely, however, he was able to hear one last thing.

"You heard him! Get the med team and head out on the double! That's an order!"

* * *

Meanwhile, in a location far away from the human military outpost, there was a similar outpost present, except this one was occupied by nothing but Faunus.

"Listen to me, my brethren!" A man with black hair and yellowish-brown eyes was standing in front of the assembled group, speaking loudly so that everyone would listen to him. "I've just received reports from our forces that several of the human soldiers have been driven away!"

The crowd cheered at the news.

"True, it's not an absolute victory, but we have made our point clear once more!" He scowled, which gave all those within close range a view of his snake fangs. "Our kind has existed as long as theirs, perhaps even longer!"

The audience collectively cried out in agreement.

"Faunus participation was important during the Great War! We were promised equal rights!" He began to approach his audience. "We were given a continent to call our own! But were we treated as equals?"

Everyone replied in a single voice. "No!"

"Even after all that has happened, everything our ancestors have lived and suffered through, humans _still_ think of us as nothing but animals!" As he continued to walk, the crowd cleared out a path for him to get through. "They think they can exile us to Menagerie! They think they can treat us like we're beneath them!"

Everyone cried out again.

"But they are wrong!" By the time he had made it to the center of the crowd, he clenched his fist and raised it. "We are Faunus! We are strong! We are proud! And most importantly…" Then he brought it down. "…we stand together!"

Once again, every single Faunus cheered at their leader's words.

"And because we do, I want to thank everyone who was involved in this." In the midst of their celebration, said leader turned around. "Wolf Pack, what can you share?"

A canine-natured Faunus boy stepped up. "Grey Luna, leader of the Wolf Pack. We forced one of their guys to step back, Naga. I don't know if they'll try to return, but if they do, we'll be ready."

"Good. That's good. We're moving closer to our goal, and what you did will act as a guiding light." Naga turned to a different ensemble of Faunus. "Bear Claw!"

A tall, strong, experienced-looking lady spoke up. "Wren Grizzly, main scout of Bear Claw. We were forced to leave, Naga. They were carrying weapons we had never seen, and… we all survived, but some of us were seriously harmed."

"That's okay." His face expressed worry and solace. "Heal up. But I will need you to tell me more about those weapons."

A cloaked figure descended from above, landing right behind him.

"…Prowl." He turned around. "I have faith that you've proven you're worth the money we paid you."

Her response was quick. "I brought the hurt to two of their most menacing units. If they're lucky, they'll spend the rest of their life breathing through a tube."

"Only two?" Naga replied, raising an eyebrow as he did. "That's… disappointing."

She scoffed at that. "I wasn't finished. Ask how many actually bit the dust; it'll certainly change that face of yours, Sitetara."

He sighed at her attitude. "I still don't understand why you're so insistent about not joining our group. We're all in this together, Prowl." He offered her a hand.

"Sorry, I don't play well with others." She slapped his hand away. "Especially those who can't even carry their own weight."

This earned her a collection of both cheers and scorn from many of the Faunus that were present.

"Even so, we appreciate your help." Naga bowed his head for a moment before looking at her again. "For what it's worth, at least take a moment to recover your strength. If we need your help before you leave, I promise we'll compensate you just like we did for this job."

She rolled her eyes at that. "What do you take me for? One of your routed weaklings? No thanks. I'd do better resting on a tree branch." She turned away from him. "I'll be back if I subtract another human from the scene. Adios."

With that, she left the scene, just as quickly as she entered it.

"I don't get it, Naga." Wren spoke to him. "Why do you stand for that woman and her ego? She obviously doesn't care for anyone but herself."

He nodded. "I know, but she's helped us plenty in the past. Besides, she's a Faunus too, and as far as our cause is concerned, that makes her our sister… for better or worse." Then he turned to look at her. "Maybe she'll join us one day, or maybe she won't. Maybe she'll learn to treat others better, or maybe not."

Before she could reply, he started to walk away.

"Right now, I'm just thankful that we've achieved as much as we have, and I hope we'll achieve much more in the future."

All she could do was stand there and look at him, amazed by his patience and inspired by his words.

* * *

Back at the human outpost, Private Midnight woke up with a jolt.

"Huh? What?! Where—"

"At ease, soldier."

He turned his head to the source of the voice that interrupted him, only to find himself faced by his commanding officer from Battalion Two.

"C-Colonel Sorrel, sir!" He quickly tried to compose himself.

The colonel gestured at him to stop. "Don't bother. You've already strained yourself enough."

He simply did as he was told.

"Your orders were clear, Midnight. You were supposed to provide reports on the Faunus every two hours." The brown-haired man's voice was firm. "You abandoned your post."

Despite his obvious discomfort, he nodded. "…There was a fellow unit member in trouble, sir."

"Yes, that was made very clear."

He brought a hand to his forehead. "Is he… alright?"

"He'll pull through. He always does." Sorrel sighed. "…Was it the mercenary again?"

He just nodded again.

"That Faunus sure has it in for you, soldier." For a moment, the colonel seemed amused. "Old flame of yours?"

Private Midnight chuckled along with his CO. "Yeah, right. She wishes."

"Well, whatever the case is, I'm glad you're alive. We need every man and woman we can get in this fight." Sorrel stood up and began to make his exit. "He's in the infirmary, if you want to see him."

His subordinate saluted him. "Thank you, sir."

* * *

At the infirmary, there was another soldier, just as Sorrel had said. His hair was a dusky shade of purple, his eyes were light green, and he had a tanned complexion.

"You know, I'm starting to wonder if you're just getting yourself hurt on purpose." He was being tended to by a woman with blue-gray hair and eyes, who took the opportunity to sass him.

He laughed in response. "What gave you that impression?"

"Oh, I don't know… the way your face lights up like a signal flare every single time I get stuck patching up your wounds?"

This earned her an amused eye roll from her patient. "You know, if you want to go out on a date with me, you could just say it."

"Oh, for the love of…" She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'd punch you right now if it wasn't my job to ensure your recovery." Then she started to make her way out. "I need more supplies."

As she did, the soldier waved at her. "Always a pleasure, Glaucia!"

She said nothing.

He laid down and closed his eyes, but only a few seconds went by before he heard another voice.

"Glaucia, huh? You're on a first-name basis now?"

He immediately opened his eyes, and was met by the sight of the one who brought him back: Private Midnight.

"I've got this in the bag, Axel." He laughed again. "She totally loves me."

His fellow soldier rolled his eyes with a scoff. "Well, congrats, Kai. Make sure you invite me to the wedding." He followed this up with a thumbs-up, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'll bring the cake."

"You prick…" Kai's reaction was nothing but genuine amusement.

Axel chuckled as he took a seat next to him. "You know, if you hate the army so much, you could just get one of those Faunus to shoot your pinky toe off." Then he punched him in the shoulder. "Instant medical discharge."

"What, and miss all the fun? No way, Midnight." Kai immediately returned the gesture. "I get plenty of scars to show off to the relatives, I get just as many chances to hit on Glaucia, and most importantly… I get to keep you busy, you lazy jerk."

That got Axel to facepalm, although he still seemed just as amused as before.

"Well, this makes about… what, eight times I've saved your hide?" He reached into one of his pockets and brought out some food, which he then handed to his companion. "You really need a better hobby, Zedong, because you owe me big time by now."

Kai scoffed at that. "Doesn't count. Your biggest fan put me here this time." He then proceeded to take what his friend had brought him. "This one's on you, buddy."

"Fine, but that still makes seven." Axel then took some more food out of his pocket, this time meant for himself. "…You do realize she just made up the supplies thing so she could get away from you, right, moron?"

This time, the two of them laughed together.

* * *

 _Back in the present…_

"…I never would have imagined that my loving, peaceful momma would ever be the kind to leave others 'breathing through a tube if they're lucky', but there ya go." Set had a grin on his face, clearly finding the contrast amusing.

Kale nodded. "And that's not even getting into how I felt when we found out Dad was _always_ a smart aleck, not just at home." Then he chuckled. "Who would've guessed?"

Wyatt looked at the two for a moment, completely astounded.

 _A surly mercenary and a respectable soldier… I am no longer surprised that these two turned out the way they did._

Meanwhile, Maza had a big smile on her face.

"…This is already the greatest story ever told in the history of Remnant." She started to shake from the excitement. "What happened next?"

* * *

Man, oh man, have I been waiting to get this one out there. Going through familiar events is definitely fun, but we all get a bigger kick out of the more original stuff we've been going over, and in particular, I was really hoping we'd get the ball rolling with this bit at the end. We look forward to expanding and having fun with it as we keep moving forward, and we hope you'll like it. In the meantime, though, it's time to bring out the list again, because we've got quite a few to go through here:

\- Plata: _Plata_ is one of the Spanish words for "silver".  
\- Grey Luna: Different spelling, but like in Chapter 6, _grey_ is a color.  
\- Wren Grizzly: _Wrens_ are small, brownish birds in the _Troglodytidae_ family.  
\- Naga Sitetara: _Sitetara_ is one of several transliterations for "black" in the Sanskrit dictionary.  
\- Sorrel: _Sorrel_ is a brown color with a tint of red to it.  
\- Glaucia: _Glaucia_ is the feminine form of the Portuguese _Glaucio_ , which means "bluish-gray".  
\- Kai Zedong: _Zedong_ is a Chinese name which is generally taken to mean "moisten-purple mushroom".

The first day has gone by, the class didn't go as poorly as a lot of them expected, even if there were some bumps along the way, but more importantly, it seems like our four teens are actually starting to bond together as a team, even if it's in the loosest possible sense of the word. What's coming next? Only time will tell, but for the moment…

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	11. Chapter 11

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Okay, here we are. New chapter, new content. We're going to back to original content once more, and I really hope that this feels like it'll work out after you've read it, because we've got another part in in the making right now, but I was thinking we could make another update while we put the finishing touches on it. Alright, now that I got that out of the way, here goes the next part of the story!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

 _The following day…_

Beacon Academy's amphitheater was as quiet as could be. You could hear a pin drop even if you weren't trying.

It was early in the morning when Glynda Goodwitch decided to step in. As the designated combat instructor, she had made a habit of very meticulously checking her students' transcripts, and she seemed to have a thing for doing so directly at the same place where she'd usually impart her classes. Was it the quiet? The familiar ground? The fact that no one would just go there first thing in the morning just because? No one in the student body really knows why she does it, so there's no telling.

Either way, she was getting ready to do so again.

Taking a seat without so much as a word, she opened her scroll and began to browse through all the available files. She found that the near-total silence was pretty good for organizing and studying all the information on the teens that she was expected to teach.

…Except today.

She had barely taken a look at the list of names when she heard something. A very faint sound, like someone was breathing. Reacting about as quickly as could be expected from an experienced Huntress, Glynda turned up the intensity of the lights and stood up, riding crop in hand.

"…What?"

Against every law of chance, sitting right in the center of the stage with his eyes closed, it was the exact same person that she was going to look up on her scroll first: Wyatt Whirlwind.

He looked as though he hadn't noticed her presence, but before she could take another step…

"Greetings, Professor Goodwitch." He opened his eyes and stood up, followed by a small bow. "My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you."

She stared at him for a few seconds. "Mr. Whirlwind, don't you believe it's a little early for you to be here?"

"It's never too early for some training." He smiled as he approached her. "I figured I'd give myself an early start."

He let himself drop down to the floor and began to do some push-ups.

Glynda's reply was very simple. "I see."

"Would you like me to leave, Professor?"

She didn't even look at him. "Not unless you're planning to start another fight."

That comment made him flinch for a moment, but he eventually kept going.

"No need to worry about that, Professor. I do not wish to engage in another fight like that. In fact, I've decided to remain as far away from Miss Xiao Long as possible for the rest of my time here." He was very adamant in his statement. "I do not intend to fight her ever again."

She sat down and immediately went back to working on her Scroll. "You might have to at some point."

"What?!" He exclaimed while sitting down. "But you just said—"

"Not everything happens the way we want it." She immediately interrupted him. "I'd hope it doesn't happen for some time, but it's possible that you'll find yourself fighting her again."

"Personal experience?" Wyatt asked with some interest.

She immediately turned to look at him, although her expression remained neutral. "Do you believe yourself in a place to ask that, young man?"

"I…" He stopped himself when he noticed that. "…I think I will go back to my meditation now."

He made his way back to the center of the stage, afraid that he might have gotten himself into thin ice with Glynda, and did exactly as he said.

* * *

 _Later that morning…_

Slowly but surely, all of the student teams began to gather at the amphitheater. Some of them were waiting for their first class to begin, while some others were still trying to wake themselves up completely. A few of them were even stretching in anticipation.

One group in particularly seemed to be really excited to begin… or at the very least, its leader was, judging by how she kept ogling every single one of the other students' weapons like they were on display at a museum.

"Wow!" Ruby Rose didn't even try to hide her excitement. "Oh my gosh, your weapons are so cool! What are they made of? Do they fire long-distance shots? Can they transform? Did you make them yourselves? Can I hold one of them? Please?"

As she practically hovered over one of the teams, none of them seemed to have anything to say. They were completely taken aback by her enthusiasm.

"Ruby…" Her teammates, on the other hand…

The mention of her name quickly got her attention, and she turned her attention over to the rest of her team. Weiss was pinching the bridge of her nose in clear annoyance, Blake was too preoccupied with a book to even look at her, and Yang looked like she was amused by her little sister's antics.

"Hey, sis, don't you think we should get moving already?"

Ruby gave an awkward chuckle in response. "Sorry."

"Could you at least _try_ to act mature for once?" Weiss crossed her arms. "Our next class is about to start, and I would prefer it if our team leader didn't drool all over the room."

Ruby frowned at that. "Hey! I'm not drooling!"

"Come on, Ruby." Yang wrapped an arm around her younger sister's shoulders. "Let's go find some good seats. I'm pretty sure this is going to be fun."

And just like that, Ruby seemingly perked up.

"Just do me a favor and try not to fall asleep this time, alright?" Weiss immediately remarked.

Suddenly, she noticed that Ruby's eyes widened at something.

"Hey, look! It's Team JNPR!" The girl's comment was just loud enough that it got said team's attention right away, and they noticed she was waving at them. "Hey, Jaune!"

"Oh, hey, Ruby!" Jaune Arc, the blond boy from the entrance test, whom Ruby had befriended not long after arriving on Beacon, waved right back at her. Not long after that, he also noticed that the rest of Team RWBY was right there with her, and he immediately focused on Weiss. "Milady."

This earned him nothing but an eye roll and an annoyed grunt from the white-haired girl.

Yang waved at them too. "Hey, guys."

"Hello again!" The next member of Team JNPR to speak up was Pyrrha Nikos, a young prodigy best known for winning the Mistral Region Tournament four times in a row… and appearing in a cereal box as a result.

Having exchanged greetings with their friends, Team RWBY took their seats right next to them.

"You guys excited for our first combat class? I know I am!" Nora Valkyrie spoke up, her enthusiasm and voice making an impression about as big as the hammer she used out in the battlefield. "You guys think we'll get to clobber someone today? Because that would be _awesome_!"

Her friend Lie Ren, the last member of their team, offered a brief response. "Calm down, Nora."

"It's just the first class." Pyrrha interjected. "Professor Goodwitch might just teach us how her class will work instead of making us fight right away."

Ruby was the next to chip in. "But it'd be so cool if we could have at least one fight." She grabbed her weapon and looked at it for a moment. "It's like Huntsmen and Huntresses get to really know each other when they fight." Then she turned to her teammates. "Remember what happened with Team SMWK?"

"I… don't think any of us are going to forget that anytime soon." Despite not even looking away from her book, Blake was apparently still paying attention.

Yang offered an expected response. "You mean us casually splitting the gym in half with our little game of tag? I know I remember it!"

"You and about half the academy, probably." Weiss replied dryly. "It's a good thing Professor Goodwitch was able to fix everything."

Her response was more teasing than anything. "Aww, don't be so sour, Ice Queen."

"Hey! Don't call me that!" Weiss yelled at her, angry at her sudden nickname.

Ruby turned her attention over to Team JNPR again. "Hey, speaking of, have you seen any of them? I wanted to say 'hi' to them before the lesson started."

"Not really." Jaune spoke up, while the rest of his team just shook their heads.

As if in response to that, they heard a voice coming from behind them.

"Oh, hey, look! It's Team RWBY!"

All eight of them turned around at the sound of that, and they saw a familiar group approaching them: two Faunus and one human—three fourths of Team SMWK.

"Hey, guys!" Maza waved at them.

Ruby quickly approached them. "There you are! Aren't you excited for our first lesson?"

"As excited as I'd be for a root canal." Set's response was… graphic.

She blinked a few times. "You're not a morning person, are you?" It was almost like she found his reaction funny.

"The moon is my mistress, Hoodie. I thought the tail kinda spelled that out."

This got another groan out of Weiss, along with a facepalm. Ruby still seemed amused, while Blake didn't react at all.

"Hey, hotshot!" Yang, meanwhile, gave him a friendly greeting.

He immediately perked up at that. "Well, if it ain't Sunshine the Punch-packer!"

"You know it!" She followed this up with a thumbs-up.

He shot a cocky smirk at her. "TNT'd any gyms lately, or is that only for your 'Pick on Titan' sessions?"

"Nah, that was just a fluke." She looked at the three for a moment. "By the way, where is he?"

Kale shrugged. "We just figured he got a head start. He was already gone by the time we woke up."

"He's probably more of a morning person." Maza giggled for a bit. "Why else would he suggest a jogging session at 5 AM?"

Jaune's eyes widened at that. "That… sounds like a bit much."

"Well, at least he's organized." Conversely, Weiss didn't seem to mind the thought.

Surprisingly, Ruby and Kale had the same response to that comment. "Oh, boy, here we go…"

"I'm sure he will appear eventually. He doesn't sound like the type that would skip a class." Pyrrha gave her own thoughts on the matter.

Suddenly, Maza gasped loudly.

"I just remembered! You're Pyrrha Nikos!"

Pyrrha was confused by the comment, but remained composed. "Um, yes. Hello."

"You were on a cereal box!" Maza quickly got closer to her. "Do you have some cereal with you?"

"U-Um… no, sorry." She replied with a nervous laugh.

The Faunus girl backed away, clearly disappointed. "Aww…"

"You… probably shouldn't eat Marshmallow Flakes anyway." Pyrrha gently tried to ease her disappointment. "Turns out it isn't very healthy."

Some of the others looked like they _wanted_ to say something to that, but couldn't bring themselves to do so out of fear that things would just get more awkward.

"Well, anyway…" Trying to defuse the tension, Jaune approached Set and offered his hand. "My name's Jaune. Jaune Arc. Nice to meet you properly."

"Set Prowl. All bark _and_ bite." He instead offered him a fist to bump. "No need to be a stretch, bub."

Jaune chuckled at that before nodding and completing the gesture.

"And these are my teammates." He turned to one of them. "First off, there's Ren."

He simply nodded and waved at them.

"He's a bit quiet… sometimes… or, well… a-a lot. Uh, most of the time." Before he could stumble on any more of his words, Jaune quickly turned his attention to the next person. "A-Anyway, I think you already know who Pyrrha is."

She waved at them, much more lively than Ren was. "Hello again."

"Hi. Nice to meet you." Kale waved back at her.

Pleased with the results there, Jaune looked at his last teammate. "And finally, we have—"

He couldn't say anything else, however, as Nora quickly interrupted him.

"Hi! My name's Nora!" Before anyone knew what happened, she approached Maza. "Hey, you're Maza, right?" She turned her attention to the Faunus girl's batons. "I just gotta say that I really like your weapons. They look _awesome_!"

This got a laugh out of her.

"Thanks. I like yours too." She ogled Nora's weapon in a similar manner. "Is that a hammer that's also a grenade launcher?"

Nora proudly showed off her weapon, and then she gave it a small spin. "You bet!" Right on cue, it transformed into a grenade launcher, just as Maza had said. "How about you? Do your weapons change into something else too?"

"They combine into a staff!" Maza replied, almost coming across like she was trying to imitate Nora's enthusiasm. "A staff that fires all kinds of Dust."

The hammer-wielding girl gasped overdramatically. "No way! Even Gravity?"

"Yes! Even Gravity!" Unsurprisingly, Maza was just as exaggerated in her assertion. "I always fire it at the ground, though. It's like getting a boost from a small rocket!"

Nora laughed at this. "I know _exactly_ what you mean."

As the two kept on talking about their weapons, the others were too busy staring at them, utterly dumbfounded.

Even Blake was surprised enough that she dropped her book. "Oh my God, there's _two_ of them."

"Goodness' sake, I thought one was enough rainbows." Set couldn't bring himself to look away from the scene for even a second, his voice giving away his shock easily. "Your mornings colorful perchance, J?"

Jaune replied in a similar fashion. "Y-Yeah…"

"Well, looks like those two are going to get along just fine." Ruby chuckled at the scene.

Weiss immediately turned to her leader, her eyes widening as she did. "That's seriously all you have to say?!"

"Oh, c'mon. Aren't you happy they both found a friend?" Yang interjected. "No need to be cold as… Weiss!" Then she flexed her eyebrows, a huge grin making its way to her face. "Eh? Eh?"

Right away, all of her peers turned to her, as if they couldn't believe she had just said that. Even Maza and Nora stopped their conversation when they heard her.

"Boo." Only Nora said anything about it, though. Maza just looked confused.

Set turned his head, eyes closed, and exhaled heavily, followed by a much-needed response. For him, at least.

"God damn it, Blondie."

Yang just leaned back against her seat, not even feeling ashamed of what she had said.

"So… the class is about to begin." Hoping to avoid any more tension, Ruby spoke up before looking at Kale. "Do you want me to help you find your teammate?"

Before he could answer, he was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Everyone, please take a seat." The group turned in its direction, only to find that Glynda had finally entered the room. "It's time to get started with our class."

Kale sighed at this. "I guess it's not going to happen now." Then he turned to Ruby again. "Thanks for the offer anyway."

"Don't worry." In response, she patted his arm. "We'll keep an eye out for him."

Jaune nodded. "Us too. Team JNPR's got your back."

"Aww, thanks, guys!" Maza happily thanked them both.

Nora gave her a friendly punch on the shoulder. "Hey, don't mention it. Teams are supposed to stick together, right?"

"Tch… tell that to Breeze." Set freely expressed his unhappiness. "Oh, wait… you can't, 'cause he's not even here."

The others decided not to comment on this, preferring instead to just sit back down and let the class begin. Just as before, Teams RWBY and JNPR sat right next to each other, while the three members of Team SMWK decided to sit behind the two groups.

* * *

Eventually, the amphitheater settled down enough that Glynda was able to start her class.

"Welcome, everyone." As expected, she came across as sharp and stern to all of her listeners. "This is going to be your first combat class." She adjusted her glasses slightly. "As you're probably already aware, one of the main reasons that a Huntsman or Huntress is chosen for a job is because of their fighting ability. Not every job calls for a combat specialist, of course; there are plenty of opportunities for those of you who are more inclined towards the idea of espionage or information retrieval."

Set grinned confidently. "Like the top Wolf sitting here. No one beats me at stealth. No one."

While most of the group didn't react to it, his boasting got some chuckles out of Yang, as well as his two teammates.

"However, when you're expected to eliminate the creatures of Grimm, or capture an escaped fugitive, or even something like getting to safety during a less aggressive mission, it's important to keep your skills at their absolute best." Whether or not she heard the comment, Glynda kept going as if nothing had happened. "Especially if your mission forces you to fight another Huntsman or Huntress, or even someone who was trained in their ways but was not officially made into one."

Maza raised a hand. "Like mercenaries?"

"Yes, that's one possibility." Glynda answered her question without skipping a beat. "And even though every aspiring Huntsman or Huntress tends to train in their own unique, personalized style, it's important to consider the thought that there might be someone out there who has a similar style and can match your every move, and you need to be ready if the situation calls for you to counter their techniques before they can think of doing it to you."

"Oh, so we're going to learn how to be unpredictable during a fight?" Nora asked excitedly. "I like it!"

Before Glynda could say anything to that, Pyrrha gave her own thoughts on the matter.

"I think it's more about trying to outthink your opponent, Nora." She turned away from her teammate to look at her teacher. "The idea is that, if you're fighting someone whose skills are like yours, they'd know what to expect from you, but you'd know what to expect from them too, so you need to think and react faster than them." Then she looked at Nora again. "Being unpredictable is good too, though. You can use tactics that they wouldn't expect to tip things in your favor."

"That's correct. Thank you, Miss Nikos." Pleased with her answer, Glynda brought her Scroll into view and started working on it. "And I think that the best way to demonstrate that would be through a practical exercise."

After she tapped the screen a few times, the students noticed a pair of displays with blank portraits on them that appeared in another part of the room.

"Now, we'll see which of you are going to be the ones to show what we've discussed."

The portraits began to rapidly cycle through a number of different pictures. Some of the students gulped, looking at Yang nervously, while others looked around, trying to find the last member of Team SMWK.

Clearly, they feared what might happen if they met again.

Their fears ended pretty quickly, though, as one of the portraits finally stopped on an image, and it wasn't either of them.

"Dove Bronzewing, from Team CRDL." Glynda named him directly, as if she could tell how tense the atmosphere was getting. The boy in question stood up, while his teammates began cheering at his inclusion.

Soon enough, the second image showed the one who'd be his opponent.

"And Voda Priepast, from Team VRDN." The room's attention immediately went to said student, who was also being encouraged by her teammates.

She was a girl with blue hair, which was messy and tied up into a ponytail, along with matching eyes and a tanned complexion, as well as some freckles right beneath her eyes. She was also wearing a black sleeveless shirt, which had frayed edges where the sleeves would normally be, and a red neckerchief with a picture of what seemed like sharp teeth arranged in the shape of a smile, along with blue shorts, black low-heeled boots, dark blue fingerless gloves, and a long, asymmetrical piece of dark blue material tied around her waist, which reached to her knee on the right side.

"Niiiice!" She did some arm stretches for a bit, which also let everyone see that she had what looked like dorsal fins on both of her elbows.

Glynda stopped looking at her Scroll and turned her attention to the two for a moment. "Both of you, please come down here."

"You got it, Professor." Voda stood up and turned to her teammates. "Wish me luck, guys!"

They gave her a thumbs-up, which she was quick to return, and then she did as Glynda had asked.

Cardin Winchester, the leader of Team CRDL, addressed his teammate as he made his way down. "Go ahead, Dove. Show that animal who's boss."

He laughed along with his other two teammates, when suddenly, he felt something hit the back of his head. He quickly turned around to try to find whoever it was that did it, but all he could find was a piece of ice on the ground melting.

"What the…?" He stared at it for a moment, as if it was something he'd never seen, before turning to his teammates. "Did you guys see anything?"

They both had the same response: a confused shrug.

While they were distracted, the class just kept on going as normal, as Dove and Voda found themselves out on the arena, with Glynda standing right between the two.

"Alright, students, listen up." She immediately spoke to them. "This is just a basic fight. One-on-one, no time limit, and most importantly, no using your Semblances. We're only testing your combat skills and your weapons." Then she looked at each of them for a moment. "Understood?"

Dove nodded before bringing out his weapon: a short bronze sword with a revolver mechanism and a short-barrel built into the hilt.

"Hey, nice!" Voda readied her own weapon in response: a relatively simple-looking handgun with a bayonet at the front. "Your weapon's kind of like mine!" And right on cue, it suddenly transformed into what looked like a cutlass. "This should be fun."

Suddenly, she surprised him by offering her left hand to him.

"Let's have a good fight, alright?"

He just stared her down, which she responded to by… switching to her right hand.

"Sorry, I forget. I'm left-handed. Not everyone is." She chuckled sheepishly. "So, what do you say?"

Still, he did nothing but stare at her in silence.

"No handshake then?" She took her hand back, preparing herself for battle instead. "Yeah, okay, you're right. Actions speak louder than words. I can respect that."

The two backed away from each other, and Glynda soon began to put some distance between herself and her students as well.

"Are you ready?" Both of them nodded. "Okay then… begin!"

Right away, Dove took the initiative and rushed in to attack, but his first strike was blocked by Voda. He followed it up with two side attacks, and then he tried an overhead hit, but all of them were deflected in the same way.

"Ooh, eager for a dance?" She pushed him back, and then she got back into position. "Great! Here, I'll lead."

She then surprised him by running in his direction and preparing for an overhead attack much like the one he had tried on her, only for her to release the sword mid-maneuver, grab it with her other hand in a reverse grip, and landing a hit on his side during a spin. He quickly retaliated, taking a swing at her head and another one at her legs, but she managed to duck them both.

"Missed me! Missed me!" Voda dodged a stomp aimed for her head by rolling to the side. "Now you've got to kiss me!"

Dove was caught off-guard when she aimed her weapon at him, which had changed back into a gun, but he bounced back quickly and managed to deflect all of her shots. He then seized the opportunity and went for her head again, only for her to pull a quick spin and a sweep kick, which made him fall to the floor. Voda quickly bounced back up, but just as she transformed her weapon into a cutlass again, he surprised her with an attempted stab to the chest.

"So-rry~" She chuckled as she jumped back. "Missed again—"

While she managed to avoid the stab, she was still hit when he pulled the trigger and fired a few rounds at her, all of which connected successfully and made her fall to the ground.

Both of them managed to stand back up, and Voda took the chance to make another quip.

"Okay, I guess we're _both_ leading."

The two rushed toward each other and engaged in a sword clash, both of them trying their hardest to push the other back, all the while their classmates watched them with excitement and awe.

Ruby was at the edge of her seat. "Oh, this is so intense! They're really good!"

"Finally!" Set exclaimed, clearly getting into the altercation. "An interesting class!"

Kale also had a comment of his own. "Wow… she's really exploiting that strategy."

"What strategy?" Jaune was curious about what he was saying. "You mean all of her banter?"

He nodded. "It's a good distractor. When you're scared, running your mouth lets you forget about it, and when you use it on someone who gets what you're saying, they'll probably be so annoyed that they'll target you and neglect everything else, so it's good if you're the bait for a team attack, or if their irritation gives you an opening for a surprise move."

Both Jaune and Weiss looked at him for a moment, surprised and impressed by his explanation, respectively.

"You're right." Their attention was quickly diverted by Pyrrha's retort, however. "Even so, it doesn't look like Dove is falling for it. He's fighting smart and keeping his focus where it should be. I'd say that they each want to take control of the fight, but the other just won't have it."

As if in answer, they all heard Cardin's voice again.

"Come on, Dove! Stop playing with that fish and just finish her already!" His irritation was pretty clear.

Yang frowned at that. "It's too bad his teammates don't see any of that…"

"Can I draw him a permanent smile?" Set was growling. "Please?"

"Just ignore them, boss. It wouldn't change anything." Maza responded, surprisingly serious in her tone. "People like them aren't even worth the time it'll take to explain things."

Before anyone could think of questioning her sudden tonal shift, she abruptly switched over to a big, happy smile again.

"Besides, that just means that _we_ get to actually enjoy the show, while _they're_ too busy complaining."

Speaking of said show, Dove and Voda finally separated from their clash, and quickly followed it up with a series of quick sword clashes. Soon enough, he took a vertical swing at her head, holding his weapon with both hands, but she stopped it with her own weapon. He managed to get a few more in there, trying to get her to relent, but in the middle of another one, she landed a kick on his chest, forcing him back while she did a few backflips.

Once they were far enough from each other, she landed on her feet.

"So… had enough yet?" The two were finally starting to show signs of exhaustion, but Voda was still the only one talking. "Do you want a time out?"

Dove just let his weapon talk for him, forcing the Faunus girl to dodge his shots.

"Okay, that's a 'no' then." She took a few shots of her own, but he deflected them all by spinning his sword. "Oh, well, it was worth a… _shot_."

That finally had an effect on him. Namely, he groaned at her pun.

 _Aha! I pinched a nerve._ She smirked at this. _Let's keep it up._

Taking the opportunity to reload her gun, she was pleasantly surprised when she saw what was in her hand.

 _Neela, you're the best._

Normally, she'd favor regular bullets, but she had received a little something from one of her teammates before class: an ice Dust cartridge.

Dove looked at her skeptically as she aimed her gun at him again.

"Freeze!" She fired a single shot at him.

He blocked it with a quick move of his sword, but this time, he was caught off-guard by the block of ice that had formed on it upon contact.

"Oh, hey, look at you." This comment got him to look at her again, and he immediately noticed her confident grin. "How _cool_ is that?"

Once again, Dove made no effort to hide his irritation at her words. He pointed his sword at her, but before he could pull the trigger, she took another shot, freezing his hand in place and stopping his attack.

"Here, have a _cold_ one!" She topped this line off with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the boy snapped, charging right at her with the intent of attacking her directly.

Voda reacted quickly, jumping up to avoid his swing, and during said maneuver, she took a few shots at him in specific spots, basically freezing him in place. Before he could even process what had happened, she threw her weapon up into the air, followed by two strong punches to his frozen hand: one to shatter the ice and one to make him drop his sword.

"Can you _chill_ out now?" She raised her hand, and right on cue, her weapon landed right on it, having transformed into a cutlass again in midair. She quickly brought it up to his face, the blade protruding from the bottom of her hand this time. "Because I've been perfecting my _icepick_ grip."

Dove was pretty angry at this development, but ultimately, he could only hang his head before her, knowing full well that this had officially ended.

"And that's the match." The two of them turned to see Glynda approaching them. "Voda Priepast wins."

Immediately, they could hear their teammates cheering or groaning at this.

"Whoo, that was a close one!" Voda stepped back as Dove struggled to free himself from the ice. "You are _good_. I swear, it's like you were reading my mind!"

She then surprised him by transforming her weapon back into a gun, switching out the ammo cartridges again, and taking a few more shots at him. The ice finally shattered, and he fell down to the floor.

"Let's have a rematch someday." She kept speaking even as he picked up his sword and stood back up. "What do you say, Dove?"

However, he merely glared at her for a moment before walking away, grunting in irritation as he did.

"Uh… okay, I guess not then." She shrugged. "Oh, well."

As she made her way back to where her friends were sitting, Voda failed to notice the way Dove and his teammates were glaring at her. She was quickly greeted by nothing but praise from all three of her friends, and she thanked one of them in particular for the ice Dust that had tipped things in her favor before turning her attention back to the stage.

"Alright, everyone, settle down." Glynda called for everyone's attention. "Before we continue with the class, does anyone have any other questions about this exercise?"

No one said anything. A few of them were still reeling from what they had seen, while some others were unfazed, but all of them stayed silent.

"Good. In that case, let's continue with our next match." She adjusted her glasses. "We've seen what happens when two people with similar styles face off against one another. Now, we're going to test what happens when the combatants have completely different weapons and fighting styles instead."

Once again, she brought out her Scroll and began to work on it.

"Please be me, please be me, please be me…" Maza chanted in whispers, crossing her fingers while looking at the spot where Dove and Voda's pictures were previously displayed.

Her excitement got a laugh out of Nora.

"I like this Maza girl." She nudged Ren with her elbow. "It's like she gets me almost as much as you do, Ren." She paused for barely a second. "Almost."

A small smile made its way to his face.

Set had himself a chuckle. "You know, for once, I do _not_ hope I snooze. In fact, I wouldn't mind getting picked." He turned his sights to Voda. "Admittedly, I'm psyched to see what other strong guys are just waiting in the wings!"

"You and me both. That fight was something else!" Yang seemed just as invested as him. "The next ones are gonna have a hard time topping that."

Kale chuckled softly. "Well, chalk another one up for the Faunus."

Said comment briefly grabbed Blake's attention, but she turned away from him before he could even notice that.

"Hey, guys! Guys!" Ruby pointed right in the direction of what she was staring at. "I think the first one is coming up!"

Everyone else looked in that same direction, and sure enough, they could see a vague silhouette forming there. After a moment, it started to clear up.

"It's…" Weiss seemed pretty surprised. "…it's you, Ruby."

Right away, Ruby's face lit up like a lens flare.

"Oh! Oh!" Maza exclaimed in excitement, watching the second image very closely. "Maybe I'll get to fight you next! I hope I do. That'd be cool."

Jaune turned in her direction. "What if it isn't you?"

"It'd still be cool." She shrugged with a grin. "No matter who it is, it's still Ruby fighting, and I _really_ want to see Ruby fighting. I bet it's going to be super amazing."

Blake pondered for a bit before speaking up.

"It might be someone that prefers quick, precise attacks. Professor Goodwitch did say that this would be a match between opposite forces." She then looked at Ruby. "Your weapon is all about strong strikes, right?"

The younger girl nodded. "Yep."

"That makes a lot of sense." Pyrrha agreed with Blake's logic.

Ever since they saw the picture, Weiss had been busy thinking about who Ruby's opponent would be, but after hearing her teammate's take on it, she decided to give her own opinion.

"Personally, I'd look at it from a different angle." She turned to her team leader. "Ruby, you're a good strategist, but as a fighter, you're reckless and chaotic, and sometimes you just don't take the obvious solution, which causes nothing but problems." Then she looked at the others. "I'd counter that with someone more cautious and analytical, as well as coordinated and consistent… someone with an _actual_ battle plan and the ability to adapt as the plan changes."

Ren's response was brief. "I agree."

"Someone who adapts… cautious and analytical…" Set briefly mused over Weiss' words. "I have at least three people in mind, and one of them might be rather… dumb to pick."

Nora looked intrigued. "Sounds like you already have an idea of who it could be."

"Wanna go on, hotshot?" Yang asked him right afterward.

He shook his head. "…For once, I'm actually afraid to answer. Only one of the options would be safe."

"Hey, I think it's stopping now!" Maza immediately got them to look at the picture again.

True to her words, it started to slow down, and once it finally settled on an image… most of the group didn't seem to know what to say.

"…I can safely say I didn't see that one coming." Kale made a simple comment.

Ren was quick to add to it. "This is… enticing."

"Was that one of the three people you were thinking of, boss?" Maza asked with a raised eyebrow.

Set nodded. "…The safe option."

* * *

I have to be honest here: after seeing the Volume 1 episodes that focused on Jaune, and then Pyrrha's solo fight against Team CRDL in Volume 2, I couldn't stop thinking about what Glynda's classes would be like, and after talking about it with the guys, all of that thinking eventually materialized into what we got here. It's been a particularly long and busy one, but we really hope you enjoyed reading it. Now that we got that out of the way, time for the names on this chapter:

\- Voda Priepast: _Voda_ and _Priepast_ are the Slavic words for "water" and "abyss", in that same order; the intended allusion was to give the idea of a very deep blue.  
\- VRDN: Pronounced "viridian", just like the color.  
\- Neela: _Neela_ is an alternate spelling of the Hindi name _Nila_ , which means "sky blue."

Now, Voda in particular is a very special case here. She was actually not our creation, but rather, she was featured with the permission and blessing of the person who conceptualized her just for fun: fellow site member MMI-Hunter. He and I have been friends for years, and even though we haven't had a whole lot of visits and there are no reviews to speak of, he's been supporting us since even before we started writing. We wanted to extend our appreciation for that, and we sincerely hope that this did a good job of getting that across. Thanks a lot, buddy. This one's for you.

Leaving this on a cliffhanger for now, but we expect to be done with it in good time. Who is Ruby going to face off against? You'll have to wait and see, so for those of you who really are curious, please stay tuned.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


	12. Chapter 12

Hello, everyone! This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing back in! Alright, we've done it. We had an entertaining premise going, but we haven't been able to wrap it up as quickly as we were expecting. In the hopes that we haven't been so slow that all interest has slipped away, and on behalf of both me and the guys, I invite you all to the second part of the scenario that we cooked up last time. Here we go!

 **NOTE:**

-This is a collaborative effort between me, Noctis Gaelum and Alastar the hawk. We claim ownership over nothing except our own original characters.

* * *

 _ **SMWK**_

"Alright, are you ready?"

It had only been a couple minutes since the announcement was made, but as Glynda prepared the stage for the next exercise, the room had gone quiet. Everyone's attention was pretty firmly set on the students she had selected for this exercise.

On one side, there was Ruby Rose. An adorable 15-year-old girl with a happily idealistic mindset and enough combat skills that Professor Ozpin gladly let her come to Beacon Academy ahead of time. The kind of person that could easily stand out in a crowd no matter what she did.

"Right! I'm ready!" Sure enough, she looked pretty excited. "How about you?"

And on the other side, her opponent looked a bit unsure.

He was someone whose record was not quite as impeccable as hers. His latest fight had ended up with someone else having to save him from a Grimm, and unlike Ruby, he wasn't exactly the picture of confidence right now.

"I… I guess so." He finally found it in him to answer her. "As ready as I'm ever going to be, at least."

Somehow, this got a snicker out of her. "Come on, Kale. This is going to be fun!"

Kale Midnight. 18 years old. A late entry. Someone who could blend into a crowd without even trying.

They hadn't even taken their weapons out yet, and already they were complete opposites.

"I know we haven't known each other that long, but still, we're going to be fighting each other now." Since he hadn't said anything else, Ruby spoke up again. "From what I've seen, I already respect you enough that I'm not going to hold back." Much like how Voda had done before, she then offered her hand to him. "So, let's make this a good fight. What do you say?"

He looked at it for a moment before turning to her face; he quickly noticed that there wasn't even a hint of irony anywhere in her expression. Turning his eyes away, he also noticed Glynda was looking right at him, as if she really wanted to know what he had to say to that.

"…Okay. Yeah, you're absolutely right." Unlike Dove, he returned the gesture. "So far, I respect you too, so I'll do my best."

As he shook her hand, Ruby smiled giddily.

"Great!" The second they let go of each other, she immediately reached for her weapon. "Let's do this, Crescent Rose!"

That made him tilt his head to the side. "Uh… who?"

"Huh?" It took her a moment, but she realized what he meant by that. "Oh, that's the name of my weapon. I came up with it myself." Then she actually brought it into view. "And built it… and customized it. A lot."

Kale chuckled briefly at that. "Cool."

"What about you?" Ruby suddenly asked him.

He immediately straightened himself up.

"Oh, right, uh…" Just like he did at the Emerald Forest, he brought out his blades. "Amalgam Shade."

At the sound of those words, he noticed that she was the one who was confused now.

"Oh, th-the name. That's what I called them. You know, born in Vacuo to a Faunus and a human, and I just figured that maybe…" He briefly trailed off before shaking his head. "It's kind of on-the-nose and I'm being all awkward about it now. Sorry."

Ruby asked a simple question, completely unfazed by his ramblings. "Are they also guns?"

"Well… yeah. Aren't they all?"

She grinned at that. "Cool."

As the two got back into position, their friends and teammates kept on watching from their seats.

"Hey, what do you know?" Yang looked pretty amused. "The fight hasn't even started and they're already getting along."

Set looked at her. "I take it making friends fast runs in the family, Fireball?"

"You know it!" She replied with a chuckle.

Nora suddenly started to shout. "Take him down, Ruby!"

"You've got this, Kale!" Maza was quick to follow suit.

Once again, Glynda stepped away from the area.

"Ready… set…" She punctuated the following bit with a slap from her crop. "Fight!"

Right on cue, Ruby raised her weapon and immediately aimed it at Kale. The clicking sound that came from her loading a Dust cartridge was all he needed to immediately dodge the shot she fired in his direction. This didn't stop the girl from taking a few more shots at him, doing her best to keep him at a distance.

It took a moment before he could figure this out, but as soon as he did, he began to run all around her in erratic patterns. Ruby tried to take aim again, but every time she did, he quickly moved out of sight. Had he not taken a clumsy step, he would've surprised her with a hit to the back, but that was enough warning for her to unfold her weapon and block his attempted attack.

Kale's eyes widened at the sight of Ruby's sniper rifle fully transforming into an enormous scythe, and he instinctively pushed her back and made a few attempts at hitting her with stabbing moves, all of which were just as easily blocked by a few quick spins of her weapon. She then closed the gap between the two and tried to hit him with the bottom of said weapon, followed by a few swings that he managed to deflect with his blades. As he jumped back to avoid an attempt at an overhead swing, he noticed that her scythe was planted firmly on the ground, which gave her just the kind of clean shot she was originally aiming for.

She pulled the trigger twice, both shots quickly hitting their target. Despite the impacts, Kale pulled a quick recovery and managed to land on his feet. He wasted no time in running up to her again, closing the gap between them once more before taking a swing at her with his left arm. Just as he expected, she managed to block it, along with an uppercut from his right arm. However, he surprised her with a somersault kick, and as they were both propelled into the air from the inertia, he quickly retracted his blades and began to fire some rapid shots at her, which all connected successfully.

Maza was impressed with her teammate's moves. "Wow, he is fast!"

"You've seen nothing yet." Set quickly took the chance to compliment his older sibling. "I have yet to find a better training partner than my brother, cupcake."

Yang smirked at this. "If he's all about speed, then I guess he's not all _that_ different from Ruby."

"With the difference of his fighting style being adaptive and organized, while Ruby's is clearly more spontaneous." Set gestured at Weiss with his head. "It's just like she said."

She nodded. "And he has the advantage in speed, since Ruby can't use her Semblance."

"But she has both strength and range on her side." Blake also chipped in, before turning her attention to Set. "He seems more like the type to sneak up for a close-range strike."

"Yeah, his training makes him proficient at sneak attacks, especially considering his Semblance." The Faunus boy scoffed in amusement. "When you think of all the possibilities, that just makes this fight all the more interesting. So alike and so different at the same time, those two."

Maza and Nora immediately gave the same answer. "Cool."

After their discussion, they noticed that Ruby was standing up tall, while Kale was trying to stand back up after having been thrown to the floor.

"This is fun!" She spoke to him as soon as he could look her in the eye again. "You're pretty good at this."

Kale chuckled briefly. "Yeah, well, so far, you're better."

This time, he took the initiative and dashed toward her, but she reacted quickly and jumped up before taking another shot. Even though he dodged it, the recoil made her fly away from him just as he was going to try and stab her again. Before he could process that, she pushed her scythe down to the floor, positioning it so she could decrease her speed and turn her weapon around. Kale jumped back away, but just as he did, Ruby pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose, and once again, the shot sent her flying in the opposite direction.

He brought his arms up, forming an X with his blades, just as Ruby performed a spin in midair which ended in a quick slice aimed straight for him. The girl's scythe was once again met by said blades, and then, reacting as quickly as he could, he followed this up by pushing the weapon away. He then made the best of her momentary lack of balance by quickly moving around her in a triangle pattern, striking her just as quickly with every move, and then finished it off with a leap backward, which he used to gather up some more speed and hit her with a dropkick.

As she flew away from Kale, her weapon retracted into its more portable shape, and she landed on her back at about the same time he did.

"Well, that's twice now I've ended up on my back compared to your once." Once again, the boy chuckled. "Not like I expected this to be a cakewalk, but wow, you're tough."

This time, Ruby followed along. "So are you. I feel like I'm training with Yang again."

Said comment got an amused chuckle out of her older sister.

"I'm pretty sure my Aura's still up and running, though." Kale immediately pulled a kip-up. "One more round?"

Conversely, she stood up normally and picked up her weapon. "One more round. This isn't over until it's over, and I'm not going to take it easy on you!"

As her weapon once again changed into a sniper rifle, Kale took aim at her with one of his arms.

"Good, because neither am I."

Right on cue, he began to fire at her, and Ruby pointed her rifle to the ground and fired a shot, using the recoil to propel herself into the air and avoid Kale's gunfire. He stopped and tried to take aim again, but before he could shoot her, he saw Crescent Rose unfolding into its full shape once more, and he promptly braced himself for another attack. Sure enough, Ruby began to spin as she fell back down, and her attack was met with resistance from Amalgam Shade's blades. She took a step away from him and went for a swing at his head, which was countered when Kale ducked down and hit her with a sweep kick, followed by a straight punch to her back.

This time, she recovered quickly and managed to land on her feet. The second she spotted Kale running in her direction, she once again fired a shot behind her so she could match his speed. His attempted overhead hit was deflected by her scythe, and before he could do anything, she hit him in the chest with the back of her weapon, followed by a few swings with the sharper end. The last one threw him up into the air, and Ruby wasted no time in jumping up so she could continue the assault. After a repeat of her previously attempted spinning attack, which successfully managed to hit this time around, the two combatants started to lose altitude, and she concluded her attack with a few quick swings of her weapon, capped off by a final shot just as he ended up in the right position.

And with that, the battle finally ended, the boy landing on his face right in front of his opponent, who stood over him with a look that could barely be put into words.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Ruby's voice was full of excitement and joy.

Most of the audience was still trying to process what had happened, though whether it was because of the speed of the fight or the sheer amazement that had come over them was up in the air.

"And that's the match." Shockingly, Glynda was completely unfazed by what she had just witnessed. "Ruby Rose wins."

As Ruby looked at her teammates and friends, she noticed that out of all of them, the only one who wasn't surprised or speechless was Yang.

"Was… w-was she still not using her Semblance?" Maza asked, visibly impressed by that last flurry of attacks.

The blonde brawler chuckled. "Yep. That was all natural."

"That was certainly… something." Even Weiss seemed stunned by what she had seen.

Jaune and Pyrrha nodded wordlessly.

"Now _that_ was an ending!" Nora suddenly turned very enthusiastic as she turned to look at Maza and Set. "Sorry, guys. Better luck next time."

Set gazed at the field of the battle, his face reflecting a mix of disbelief, intrigue and amazement.

"That… was…" Ruby's attention was diverted by her opponent's voice, who was still on the ground. "…the toughest fight I've ever had in my life."

She saw him giving her a thumbs-up without even looking at her, which she found both nice and amusing on his part.

"I'm serious." As she approached him again, Kale rolled over so he was facing up now. "You might even give my father a run for his money, Ruby."

He could see her smiling as she offered him a hand, which he was quick to take. After she helped him up, both of their weapons folded back into their more portable shapes.

"Well, you're pretty strong too." Ruby also took the chance to praise him. "Maybe we can have a rematch someday, with all of our skills."

Kale nodded. "You say when. I promise I'll be ready."

As the two began to make their exit, Glynda made a few taps on her Scroll before looking at them.

"Thank you, students." She adjusted her glasses again. "Well, that's all the material we have for today. Any following classes are going to be longer, so I hope this has given you an idea of how to strategize during your fights and what our lessons are going to be like." Pleased with what seemed like a positive reaction from her students, she headed for the exit. "You're all dismissed."

While most of the others just followed suit, Ruby and Kale made their way to their friends and teammates.

"Hey, guys." She spoke up first. "What's up?"

She quickly noticed that Set was still staring at her. "Kale actually lost…" His voice also left his disbelief at the situation pretty clear. "You are full of surprises, Hoodie."

"I'd say both of them are, hotshot." Yang gave Kale a thumbs-up. "You did a pretty good job facing off against my sister, Kale. Much better than I expected."

He shrugged at this. "Yeah, but she still won. She's definitely a tough nut to crack."

"Don't worry, you were great out there too." Maza was smiling at him. "And hey, there's always going to be a rematch, right?" She pointed at the two. "Because you already agreed on it."

"Yeah, but like I said before, it'll be on Ruby's terms." He gestured in her direction with his head. "She won our fight here, so she gets to decide."

Once again, Blake seemed surprised. "That sounds… reasonable."

Nora was about to say something, but then she noticed that Maza was a little distracted.

She tapped her shoulder a couple times. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Huh? What?"

Right away, she turned to look at the others, and she saw that they were confused by her reaction.

"Oh, sorry. I got distracted." She chuckled from the embarrassment. "There was this one guy with what I could've sworn was a whip sword." She looked around for barely a second before turning to them again. "Did you guys see him?"

Most of them just shook their heads.

"We must've missed him." Nora spoke up instead.

Maza shrugged. "Oh, well. Maybe I'm just imagining things." Then she turned her attention directly to the hammer-wielding girl. "So, Nora, would you like to hang out around Vale? I know this little place where you can get pancakes with chocolate syrup and just a touch of whipped cream. It'll take your head right off! Not only that, but it's so cheap that even shopping for comics seems expensive by comparison. You know what I mean?" She giggled for a moment.

"Do I?!" Nora asked, completely ecstatic at her offer. "What are we even waiting for?! Let's go-go-go already!"

Jaune and Pyrrha had themselves a chuckle, while Ren had a knowing smile on his face.

"Okay then!" Maza turned to her teammates. "See you later?"

Set smirked at her. "Catch ya later, cupcake."

"Bye, Maza." Kale waved at her.

Likewise, Nora gave her team a very quick wave. "Later, guys!"

Before anyone could even think about… anything, really… she sprinted off the scene with Maza in tow.

Kale blinked a couple times. "Well… she seems pretty chipper."

"She's always like that." Jaune interjected. "Then again, Maza said her favorite word."

Set raised an eyebrow. "What, 'pancakes'?"

"She loves them." Ren added to the conversation. "She drank all the pancake batter I was going to use yesterday… and the syrup, too."

Kale's eyes widened at that. "Wow, that's… th-that is something else."

"Do you still want some help looking for your teammate?" Ruby suddenly offered. "With my speed, I bet we can cover more ground in no time."

Set shrugged and shook his head. "Nah, that's okay, Hoodie. He's a big boy. He can take care of himself."

"Well, we'll still try to keep an eye out for him." Jaune was quick to reply. "That's a promise."

Yang nodded before turning to Set. "Hey, let's all exchange numbers. If any of us spot him, we can let you guys know." Then she looked at the others. "Good plan, right?"

"Is that what you call it?" He scoffed in amusement. "Sure, let's do that."

After a quick exchange session between all of them, they put their Scrolls away.

"Well, we should get going now." Weiss spoke up. "After a class like that, I don't think Professor Goodwitch is going to let us just stand around doing nothing."

Kale nodded. "Yeah, I think I'm just going to head back to our room and rest up for today." He cracked his neck a couple times. "I'll need as much energy as I can get before I start training for that rematch."

"I'll be ready!" Ruby smiled eagerly.

Pyrrha raised a hand. "We should probably get going too."

"Yeah, we're going to go buy more syrup and pancake mix to replace the ones that Nora ate up." Jaune waved at the other two teams. "See you around, guys. We'll pass your numbers over to her, okay?"

As the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR made their way out, the two brothers were left alone.

"Well, guess that's it for today, bro." Kale didn't let the silence last long.

Set yawned loudly. "Might as well hit the hay, eh?"

"After that thrashing? Try and stop me." The older boy had a brief chuckle.

* * *

 _Some time later…_

The two brothers were making their way back to their room, fully prepared to just stay there and call it a day, but somewhere along the way, their conversation had circled back around to the same subject.

"I'm still pretty blown." Set was the more talkative one out of the two. "Ruby beat _you,_ of all people."

Kale was a bit more relaxed about it. "Hey, come on, it's not _that_ weird."

"Only Pops had ever clocked you that bad before." The Faunus boy kept going, almost like he didn't hear that. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that happened."

"Don't forget about the time Dad met up with Kai at that bar." Kale laughed for a moment. "That was a pretty tight stalemate between me and her, remember?"

His younger brother rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah, she was aiming her sniper rifle at your chest and you had your fist right beneath her chin while Kai and our old man were drinking and laughing it up. I remember. I was there." Then he gave him a nudge. "A draw ain't a loss, soldier."

"Alright, okay, fair point." Kale sighed. "Still, whoever it is that Ruby learned her tricks from, they must be serious business."

Soon enough, the two reached their room… and they were greeted by a surprise: the door was ajar.

" _Agreed._ " Then they were slightly startled when they heard a familiar voice coming from the other side. " _Judging by the results of your fight, her training regime has provided some very promising results._ "

The brothers entered the room, and sure enough, Wyatt was sitting on his bed, with his back turned to them. They also noticed that there were some damaged metal pieces sitting right next to him, some of which even looked like they had burns on them.

"Miss Rose's sniper/scythe combo allowed her a high degree of versatility for both medium and long range attacks. It seems like her balance is quite good when wielding her super heavy class weapon, and needless to say, her aiming skills are top notch." When he finally turned to look at them, the brothers noticed that he was apparently fixing his weapon. "If you're really hoping for a rematch, my advice to you is that you should focus on close combat tactics like you did, but you should also exploit the drawbacks that come from the size and weight of her weapon." Then he brought his focus back to his work. "Also, she favors her right leg for balance."

Set was quick to speak his mind. "Well, Big Man, I'd say someone did his homework. Just one teeny tiny question…" He raised an eyebrow at his teammate. "How can you know that if you weren't even in class?" Then he sniffed the air. "Not that I'd remember anyway, but now that think about it… I _did_ catch a slight whiff of your stench." And then he looked at him again. "Care to explain?"

"Tanuki-gakure, sir." Wyatt wasted no time with his reply. "I was in the room the whole time. I simply stayed out of sight using the oldest trick in the book."

That got him to start snickering. "Somewhere, in the darkest corner of the back of my mind, I'm picturing you in an orange jumpsuit…"

Wyatt stopped his work in its tracks and looked at him with confusion and discomfort. "In what situation would the color orange work in a suit, sir? That would only turn you into nothing but a mobile target."

Kale looked pretty confused by his response. "Uh… i-it's a joke."

"Oh…" Wyatt looked away for a moment, somewhat embarrassed, but soon decided to explain further. "Anyway, what I meant to say is that I simply stayed hidden in the second floor while the class was imparted, and you simply didn't detect me with all the students in the room at the time. It seemed like a safe way to avoid any further confrontations with Miss Xiao Long." He then grabbed a small notebook, which sat on his bed, and passed it over to Set. "I also took some notes concerning the two battles that could be of use to you. Tell me, sir, how comfortable are you with cracking jokes and using psychological warfare tactics during combat?"

Kale raised a hand. "Oh, well, that's his forte."

"Funny, I thought you'd pick up on that." Set went straight for his hammock. "After all, it was you who called me 'Snark Cub' no more than a day or two ago, Mastermind."

Wyatt bowed his head down. "My apologies. I was under the impression that it was just pre-fight banter, but after today, I've come to understand that psychological warfare can be a great asset. Keeping your opponent off-balance, conquering their minds first before seeking victory…" He thought his next words over for a bit before continuing. "What do you think, sir? If it interests you, I could go ask Miss Priepast for some tips or training methods that may have helped her come up with her clever remarks." He brought a hand to his chin. "I wonder… must they all be good? Can some of them be bad?"

"Uhh…" That was the only response that Kale could come up with.

Conversely, Set had no trouble speaking his mind. "Keep it in your pants, Titan."

"Fair enough." Wyatt pointed at the book. "Anyway, you will find some fighting techniques and ideas I got from previous battles in that notebook over there, just in case you want to take a look at it." Then he quickly stood up. "If you'll excuse me…"

He grabbed his weapons and marched towards the door.

"Hey, where are you going?" Kale asked his teammate.

"To the city." Wyatt showed the two his damaged weapon. "The roulette in my weapon was damaged beyond repair due to the Dust explosion and I need to replace it. I also need to buy some special metal for my drills, so they can't be damaged by a sword projectile."

The older boy's eyes widened. "O-Oh… oh, right, because…" He rubbed the back of his neck, clearly feeling uncomfortable. "…y-y'know—"

"Yeah, 'cause you needed discipline after your little tantrum." Once again, Set's retort came quickly.

Unlike his leader's other remarks, that comment got a clear reaction out of Wyatt.

"It was a constantly escalating conflict!" He quickly defended himself, but then hung his head in shame. "But in a way, I suppose you're right. By breaking the roulette, you probably saved the school from having… an unnecessary snow day, let's say." He raised his head back up. "Plus, it helped me find a fatal flaw in my weapon, so it was a learning experience." He looked back at his drills. "A mistake I do not plan on repeating."

Kale turned his head away. "Y-You're not… angry, are you?"

"I'm a Huntsman, Kale. I don't get angry. I simply…" He sighed and looked back at them. "Look, maybe I _am_ angry, but it is not at you."

Both Kale and Set were taken by surprise at this comment.

"I'm angry at myself. I was stupid and I injured a lot of people because I couldn't ignore the banters of a hotheaded girl that still has her ears wet. I made a mistake, but it's going to be the last one." Wyatt turned back towards the door. "I will not let this happen again… _ever_." He mumbled the last bit to himself before opening the door. "I will be back in the evening."

Once he had left the room, the two brothers were left alone again.

With a heavy sigh, Kale fell right on top of his bed. "Jeez… that conversation seriously made me forget how beat I was."

"I'm just amused by how humanly he acted for once." Set had himself a chuckle. "Didn't think he had it in him."

Kale cracked his neck a couple times. "Yeah, well, between that and Ruby wiping the floor with me, I guess today's just full of surprises for you, eh, fearless leader?"

"To say the least, soldier."

The two laughed for a bit.

"By the way…" Kale sat up on his bed. "…I _do_ think Yang likes you."

Set swiftly turned bright red. "Sh-Shut up!"

"O-Okay, okay!" His brother raised his arms defensively. "Shutting up."

After yet another awkward silence, the two just sighed.

"Seriously, how did you get to be the oldest?"

"I have no idea."

* * *

Well, there you have it. This is one that I've personally been hoping to do since even before we started doing this whole thing, and even though it took a lot of tweaking here and there, I'm really happy with how it came out.

This would've come out sooner, but the past few months were a bit of a rough time for all of us, and we didn't get to finish this until just recently. We really hope that you guys feel it was worth the wait.

No names to exposit on this time, so we can just close this off by saying that after this fun little situation, we really hope to keep the train rolling with entertaining scenarios, and we especially hope that anyone who has bothered to keep reading all the way up to this point is going to stick around. What's coming up next? Keep an eye out on things and you'll find out in good time.

This is Umbra the Hedgehog signing off.


End file.
